


a heart of light to snuff out the dark (and awaken the old)

by BatWingsandBlackCats



Category: Carmilla (Web Series)
Genre: Angst, F/F, Fluff, Hollstein - Freeform, LaFlashdrive brotp, Laura/Kirsch brotp, Mattie/Laura brotp, The Seeker: the Dark is Rising AU, Zeta Society BrOTP, mentions of laferry
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-08-31
Updated: 2017-01-29
Packaged: 2018-04-18 09:34:35
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 13
Words: 49,726
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4701059
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BatWingsandBlackCats/pseuds/BatWingsandBlackCats
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Laura Hollis is in her second year at Silas University when odd things start happening around her. Silas is a strange place to begin with, but it becomes particularly unsettling when animals start acting strangely around her, and wherever she goes, crows seem to follow, lurking among the bare branches. </p><p>Things get even stranger when she starts stepping through time. </p><p> A The Seeker: The Dark is Rising AU</p><p>On my tumblr I've set up a page for this fic that works sort of like the canon transmedia, just not in any character's voice. It's on the page 'The Dark Is Rising Carmilla AU' (posts will be tagged as #TDIRAU) and that's where any updates go, as well as relevant pictures, and occasionally songs that fit the mood. you can find that page <a href="http://batwingsandblackcats.tumblr.com/tagged/TDIRAU">here</a> </p><p>(Rated Mature due to fuzziness on possible future adult content. I may change the rating as time goes on. Archive warnings may change as well.)</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> AU based on the 2007 movie, The Seeker: The Dark is Rising (book originally by Susan Cooper)
> 
> This movie has been one of my favorites since it came out, and a couple weeks ago it popped into my head, and the gears started turning. (Also, ironically, the villain in the movie is played by none other than Christopher Eccelson, AKA, the ninth Doctor. Thought that would make Laura happy, haha.)
> 
> All updates and related posts will be posted to my tumblr under the tag #TDIRAU, on the page 'The Dark is Rising Carmilla AU'
> 
> I hope you all enjoy! comments and critiques are always welcome and greatly appreciated, and kudos are always appreciated as well :)  
> (apologies for any spelling/grammatical errors)
> 
> Thanks for reading!

Dusk was falling over Silas University, the sun quickly sinking below the trees. Slivers of sunlight bled through bare branches waving in the wind, and with classes having ended for the day, students were hurrying home to dorm rooms and apartments, eager to get out of the cold. Even for Styria in late November, it was unusually cold. The coldest it’d been in years, in fact, though no snow had yet fallen.

A figure emerged from the woods that bordered the campus grounds. A person, swathed in a cloak of crow feathers sat atop a white horse, gloved hands clutching at black leather reigns. Its hooves pounded the ground, carrying its rider across the lawn towards the north quad, as thick, choking black fog curled around the horse’s hooves and left the grass dead and brown in their wake. The figure and its horse weren’t visible to those around them, but anyone who was unfortunate enough to be close to the rider was filled with a sense of unease as freezing wind bit into their skin, seeping through coats and sweaters. This feeling settled deep into their bones, and it made them hurry home even faster. 

The Rider galloped across the north quad, past the brick and roughly hewn grey stone of the LeFanu Reading Room, the caf, and the Lustig building, towards the far end of Crowley Hall, and came to a stop below the four rows of windows. The Rider’s shrouded eyes scanned the third floor window to the far left as black fog crept up the brick wall, seeping into the small gap between the window and the window frame. 

\------

Betty was sitting on her bed, pen clamped between her teeth as she tried to understand the biology homework that was laid out in front of her on her bed. Biology really was not her speed. She groaned, chucking her pen across the room, and leaned back after turning her music up a bit. She needed a break. She closed her eyes for a moment, but quickly opened them again when she heard a scraping noise. Betty turned around in search of the noise, and her breath caught in her throat when she saw the window slowly creeping open as black, freezing fog seeped into the room. She scrambled off the bed and ran for the door, but the door wouldn’t open. She pounded on the door, frantically screaming for help, but nobody came, and the fog was starting to curl around her ankles, spreading frost over her skin. Her banging and screaming became hysterical as the fog made it up her body, her skin getting colder and colder and colder until she couldn’t feel her limbs. The fog curled up around her chin, entering her mouth and covering her eyes, the cold mercilessly working its way through her insides. 

The screaming and pounding ceased as the fog retreated out of the window, leaving frost behind on every surface. Two footprints were visible in front of the door, but there was no trace of Betty otherwise. The window remained open as the last of the fog receded, white lace curtains billowing in the cold breeze.


	2. Chapter 1

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Laura gets kicked out of her dorm and crashes with Danny and the rest of the gang for a couple nights.

Laura Hollis hurried along the cobblestone towards Crowley Hall, having just come from her Anthropology class at the Walter Freeman building. Professor Vordenberg’s lecture had run late (Vordenberg’s lectures _always_ ran late. That man was full of stories, most of which having absolutely _nothing_ to do with the topic of the lecture.) and she just wanted to get out of this cold and home to her bed, a mug of cocoa, and the latest episode of Agent Carter. He’d set a paper, on what, Laura didn’t exactly know, thanks to his wild stories, but she was fairly certain it was to be on the artifacts that had recently been found in Scandinavia. When he _did_ stay on topic, he spoke as if he’d been around when the artifacts had ben made. By the looks of him, he probably had been. Unrelated stories aside, he seemed like a harmless, fairly goofy old man. 

Danny had taken Vordenberg’s Anthropology class the year before, so maybe she’d be able to clarify exactly what the essay was supposed to be about. Laura grinned into her scarf at the prospect of calling Danny. Calling Danny was certainly not a bad thing, and having an excuse to call her was even better. They’d been friends since freshman year, having met through Laura’s freshman Lit class. Danny had been her Lit TA, and Laura had had a bit of a crush on her since. Despite being friends, Laura had a tendency to get rather tongue tied around her, so, yeah. Excuses were welcome. 

\-----

Carmilla was leaning against the cold stone that made up the exterior wall of Crowley Hall, watching as a little brunette came into view. Maman had instructed her to keep an eye on the other girl from 307. Laura. Her name was Laura. Carmilla watched as she hurried along the cobblestone, a book laden bag on her back, and a maroon and gold striped scarf wrapped around her neck and pulled up to her ears. Her hair was still sun streaked in places, and it cascaded over her denim clad shoulders and stuck up in places, having gotten tangled in the hood of her Silas pullover that she wore beneath the jean jacket, and her scarf. Carmilla cocked an eyebrow. She was cute, she’d give her that, but this little human was probably the least threatening being she’d ever laid her eyes on, and _this_ was who she was to keep an eye on? She scoffed under her breath and squelched the thought that threatened to surface. Maman had said that she had already captured the girl she was after, and that Carmilla was to just keep an eye on the other girl from 307, and to tie up loose ends if need be. 

Carmilla watched as Laura drew closer, and pushed herself off the wall to keep pace with her. Her steps were sure, and calculated, the heels of her motorcycle boots thumping quietly on the cobblestone. She felt eyes on her, and smirked. She drew gazes wherever she went, but only when she wanted to. If she wished not to be seen, it would be so. 

\-----

Laura’s wandering mind was pulled back to the present when she heard a jingling noise ahead of her. She looked up in search of it, and caught sight of a small, leather clad woman with wavy chestnut brown hair walking in front of her, the jingling coming from the buckle hanging from the front of her motorcycle jacket, swinging back and forth. The woman glanced back at her, but before Laura could get a good look at her face, she was swallowed up by the throng of students surrounding them. She shrugged it off and ducked into the doorway of Crowley Hall as a large gust of wind barreled down the quad. A crow flew overhead, cawing loudly as Laura entered the hall, and landed on the flagpole that hung above the entrance. A deep blue flag bearing the university crest and the name of the hall hung from the flagpole, billowing and snapping in the wind. The crow fidgeted, shifting on the flagpole and flapping its wings a bit. It cocked its head, fixated on the doors.

Laura dodged a few students and hurried up the worn wooden stairs to her dorm, happy to be out of the cold. She unwrapped her scarf from her neck as she made her way down the hall, which was lined with portraits of past professors, and posters for various clubs and events, and ran a hand through her windswept hair in an attempt to tame it as she searched her pocket for her keys. Her face fell as she slowed to a stop in front of the door that had brass numbers reading’307’ on it. She dropped her other hand to her pockets and patted them all, groaning when she found them all to be empty save for her phone in her back pocket. 

“Son of a Hufflepuff...” she muttered. She raised a hand and banged on the door. “Betty?” she called, and waited a moment. “Betts??” She pounded on the door again. “Betts, I forgot my keys! Please tell me you’re not shacking up with some sub-literate gym--” her words were cut off when the door was yanked open a fraction. A man was standing in the doorway, looking vaguely annoyed. He had short dark hair, and looked rather young, like he could be a student. 

“Um...what are you doing in my room?” Laura asked, eyebrows raised.

“I’m from maintenance,” He said, a slight drawl to his voice, “There will be construction taking place on this end of the hall. You will have to make other living arrangements.” He looked her up and down.

Laura’s mouth gaped open. “What do you mean other living arrangements? I have heard _nothing_ about ‘construction.’ How am I supposed to move now? I have papers due, like, tomorrow,” She said, “and what about Betty??”

“You’re young,” He smiled, though it wasn’t warm or at all encouraging. Unsettling was more like it. “versatile,” He shoved a cardboard box with a handful of her belongings in it, into her arms. Laura stumbled back a little, and he barely contained a laugh. “This is your notice. Betty has been moved as well. Your things will be delivered to your new place of residence in a day or two,” With that, he promptly slammed the door in her face.

Laura stared at the door for a solid few minutes before snapping herself out of it. “What the what...?” She whispered to herself, eyebrows knitted together. She sighed after a moment, her shoulders slumping. She apparently had a new excuse to call Danny, now. She pulled out her phone with a groan and dialed her number. 

“Hey Hollis,” Danny greeted cheerfully after a few rings.

“Hey,” Laura sighed, leaning against the wall as she wedged the box under her arm. 

“What’s up, Laura? You sound upset,” Danny asked, concern etched in her voice. 

Laura smiled a little. “Well...I got kicked out of my dorm,”

“What??” Danny asked, alarmed.

“Yeah, apparently this end of the hall is undergoing construction soon,” Laura explained, “and their notification system sucks...I came back to my room and there was some guy already there. He shoved a box in my hands and said that the rest of my things would be delivered to my ‘new place of residence.’”

“Do you have somewhere to go?” Danny asked. Laura could hear shuffling in the background.

“Well...that’s why I was calling,” she said, chewing on her lip. “I was going to ask if I could crash at your place for a couple nights while I figure something out,”

“Absolutely, here, I’ll come meet you over by the Lustig,” Danny said.

“Oh, no, it’s okay, I’ll be fine,” Laura said quickly, “It’s cold out, I don’t want you to have to leave your room,”

“I’m already out the door, Hollis,” Sure enough, Laura heard the muffled slam of the door as Danny exited the apartment.

Laura smiled a little, starting to head down the hall again. “Alright, thanks, Danny. See you in a few,” She hung up after Danny said goodbye, and wrapped her scarf around her neck again in preparation for the blast of cold that awaited her outside.

Danny lived in a shared apartment on campus with LaFontaine, Perry, Kirsch, and JP. Laura had come to the group last, being the youngest. Everyone else had already met through classes, and in Danny and Kirsch’s case, through the rivalry between the Summer Society and the Zetas. JP, LaFontaine, and Perry had been the first three in the apartment, and Danny had come around sometime during March of last semester after a falling out with her Summer Society sisters. Kirsch moved in in late September after someone set his room in the Zeta house on fire during a frat party. Or maybe it was him that almost set someone else’s room on fire? Laura wasn’t clear on the details, but she was certain fire and copious amounts alcohol were involved. 

Laura braced herself as she pushed the door open, and groaned into her scarf as the cold rushed around her. She hunched her shoulders slightly, and headed towards the Lustig building as the last rays of sunlight struggled through the trees. The crow that had landed on the flagpole earlier was still there, and it watched Laura’s back with curious eyes as it ruffled its feathers. It cawed loudly and took off from the flagpole, soaring above Laura’s head. She looked up, hearing the cawing, and her eyebrows knitted together. She looked ahead of her after a moment, pressing on, and shrugged off the prickling at the back of her neck. It was just from the dark, that prickle. She’d never really liked walking around campus in the dark. 

There was something weird about this campus, and the surrounding land. Dusk seemed to fall faster than it did in the surrounding towns, and when dark fell, Laura always felt eyes on her back. It wasn’t just her, either. She’d heard other people say it too. The dark here felt thick sometimes, and stifling. Sometimes it didn’t, and being outside at night felt freeing and wonderful, if you could ignore the constant feeling of eyes boring into the back of your head. Sometimes fog would roll in from the mountains and get trapped in the trees, and it wouldn’t burn off for hours and hours, so there were constantly ghostly wisps rising from the trees and fanning over the lawns where the trees ended. Being outside at Silas often felt unsettling, causing the hair at the back of Laura’s neck to prickle and her steps to become hurried, but once she was inside, It felt almost...comforting. The darkness and the fog would hug the buildings, and it would feel containing and cozy when her owl lamp and the little lanterns over the sink in the corner were on, and she was burrowed under her covers. On clear nights, millions an millions of stars were visible, as if light pollution didn’t exist around Silas. It was nice. 

The looming form of the Lustig building slowly came into view, and Laura smiled. She’d always liked this building, with it’s roughly hewn grey stone walls, its slightly rickety doors and its red roof shingles, and the great round window just under the roofline that faced the east. It always caught the sun in the morning, and Laura could see it from her dorm if she craned her neck a bit. Or, she used to be able to see it. 

“Laura?” someone called, a flashlight bobbing a couple hundred paces away. 

“Hey Danny!” Laura called back, waving. She stopped after a moment, realizing that Danny probably couldn’t see her waving. the sun had gone all the way down by now. 

Danny jogged the rest of the way, stopping beside Laura. “You okay?” She asked, taking the box from Laura’s arms and turning to lead Laura the rest of the way to the apartment. 

“Yeah, just a little shocked, I guess. But I’ll be fine,” She glanced up at Danny with a smile. “Thanks for letting me stay with you,” She stopped suddenly, realizing what that must sound like. “I mean, letting me stay at your place--or, everyone’s place? I--just--thanks for letting me crash with you guys,” She said, resisting the urge to groan in exasperation at herself. 

Danny just chuckled. “No problem, Laura. You’re always welcome,”

Laura breathed a sigh of relief. At least Danny didn’t seem phased by her fumbling word vomit. For a journalism major, she had quite the knack for being inarticulate. Thank god it was only when she spoke. “Seriously though, thanks,”

Danny grinned down at her and nudged her shoulder playfully. “No problem,” She said again. 

They spent much of the walk back in silence, save for the soft crunch of leaves under their feet. Up ahead, soft, warm light spilled out of the windows of the apartment. Soon enough, Danny was unlocking the door and leading Laura up a short flight of stairs, and unlocking another door. They entered, and Laura immediately caught the scent of brownies. Perry must have been baking again. The walls of the living room were wallpapered in red velvet brocade, and the the hardwood transitioned to flagstone in the kitchen. A plush, cream colored sectional took up much of the far wall facing the door, and a slightly outdated flatscreen sat in a cramped entertainment center opposite the couch. A beat up coffee table sat between the two. Two bookshelves, heavy with thick volumes, flanked the large bay windows. Laura looked around, smiling. Not much had changed since the last time she’d been here. That had been before christmas break last year. 

“You don’t mind taking the couch, right?” Danny asked, setting Laura’s box down on the coffee table.

“Not at all,” Laura said, shrugging her bag and jacket off. She dropped her bag on the floor and draped her jacket, hoodie, and scarf over the back of the couch. She sighed and stretched a bit, running a hand through her hair. 

“If you’re hungry, there’s food in the fridge,” Danny said after kicking her shoes off and nudging them next to the others neatly. (Perry would go ballistic if they were just piled up.) “I’ll of grab some blankets for you,”

“Thanks,” Laura called as Danny headed upstairs. She followed Danny’s example and toed her boots off and placed them by the door, and then went to go poke around the kitchen. She found a half eaten banana nut bread next to the microwave and after a moment, located the plates. She cut herself a piece and then headed back to the living room to wait for Danny. She was busy reading the titles of the books as she sat on the end of the couch when she heard purring and felt something soft brush up against her bare arm. She looked down and smiled, a little squeal of excitement escaping her lips when she saw it was a little cat. She set her banana bread down and picked up the scruffy little orange tabby, cooing softly as she cradled her in her arms.

Danny smiled as she walked in. “I see you’ve met Natalie,”

“Natalie?” Laura asked, raising an eyebrow. 

Danny snorted. “Yeah, she’s Kirsch’s cat. He found her wandering around campus and _somehow_ convinced Perry to let him keep her,”

Laura laughed. “Why Natalie though?

“I have no idea,” Danny said, shrugging. She lifted the blankets a little before setting them on the couch beside Laura. “uh, I brought out a pair of my sweatpants too, if you want. You’ll probably swim in them, but it beats jeans, right?”

“No, that’s great,” Laura smiled, setting Natalie down on the floor. “thanks,”

Danny nodded, smiling. She hesitated for a moment, and then seemed to notice that she was staring at Laura as she unfolded one of the blankets and threw it over the couch. “Uh, yeah, so you remember where the bathroom is?”

“Yeah,” Laura glanced up at her for a moment, and then started getting the second blanket situated. 

“Okay,” Danny smiled, shuffling her feet slightly. “You need anything else?”

“No, this is great, Danny, really,” Laura smiled. “Thank you,” 

“No problem, Hollis,” Danny said, making her way back to the stairs again. “night,” She then turned and headed back upstairs.

“Take care!” Laura called, and then made a face at herself. “‘Take care’? Really?” she hissed to herself, shaking her head. She sighed and headed down to the bathroom to brush her teeth. The guy in her room had been merciful enough to put her toothbrush in the box, at least. And her yellow pillow, which she was very happy about. She changed into Danny’s sweats, which, of course, she was swimming in, but hey, they were soft. And they were Danny’s. She tied the drawstrings as tight as she could--she still had to hold them up because they started shimmying down her hips a bit when she walked--and headed back to the living room. After shutting the lights off, she crawled under the blankets, and burrowed into her pillow, sighing quietly. She tried not to think about trying to find a new place to live, and just concentrated on the fact that the couch was cushy and the blankets were soft and warm. She dozed off after a little while, her soft breath evening out, causing a few strands of hair to blow back and forth. 

Outside, a pair of dark, large feline eyes peered in through the window. They weren’t predatory, mostly indifferent, but also a little curious. She let out a huff of breath through her nose, and turned, sauntering into the woods. Maman didn’t say to keep a constant eye on her. She didn’t like to anyways, for several reasons. She’d check up again tomorrow.

\----

The next morning, Danny stood in the kitchen, wincing at the loud gurgling coming from the coffee pot. Laura was still passed out on the couch, and she didn’t want to wake her. She shut it off and poured a mug, adding cream and sugar before going to sit on the unoccupied half of the couch. She was just opening her book when a bleary eye peered over the blankets at her. 

Danny smiled, taking a sip of her coffee. “Morning sleepyhead,”

Laura groaned and sat up, rubbing her eyes. “Morning,” She mumbled.

“Did you sleep good?”

Laura nodded. “Yeah...really good actually,” 

“Good,” Danny smiled, “hey, I talked to Kirsch and JP last night. They’re both in their own rooms, but they said they wouldn’t mind bunking if you wanted to just move in here,”

Laura stopped mid stretch, both arms in the air, and looked at Danny, eyes wide. “Seriously?”

“Yeah,” Danny shrugged, “if you want. You seemed pretty stressed out about finding a new place so I figured, why not stay here, you know? With people you know?”

“Oh my god, thank you thank you thank you!!” Laura gasped, dropping her hands to her cheeks. 

“No problem,” Danny chuckled, setting her book down. 

Laura ran a hand through her hair, grinning from ear to ear. “I would hug you right now but I probably have really terrible morning breath, so I’m going to go brush my teeth and then I’ll hug you,” she crawled out from under the covers and trotted down the hall to the bathroom.

Danny watched her go, shaking her head slightly with an amused smile quirking her lips.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading! feel free to swing by my tumblr if you have any questions or just want to say hi!


	3. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Laura is just getting settled into life at the apartment when yet another new housemate shows up.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hey everyone, sorry for the delayed update--life kinda got in the way today. 
> 
> Also, LaF is introduced this chapter, and I wanted to ask you guys if you could please please please tell me if I ever fuck up their pronouns and don't catch it. I've gotten pretty good at just doing it automatically, but I'm paranoid that I'm going to mess it up, so if I ever slip up, please let me know so I can fix it. 
> 
> On my tumblr I've set up a page for this fic that works sort of like the canon transmedia, just not in any character's voice. It's on the page 'The Dark Is Rising Carmilla AU' (posts will be tagged as #TDIRAU) and that's where any updates go, as well as relevant pictures, and occasionally songs that fit the mood. you can find that page [here](http://batwingsandblackcats.tumblr.com/tagged/TDIRAU)
> 
> I hope you guys enjoy, and thanks for reading!

“Good morning, Laura,” Perry greeted, looking far too chipper for someone who just woke up. She walked down the stairs, her pinkie linked with LaFontaine’s. 

“Hey frosh,” LaFontaine yawned, waving. They made a beeline for the coffee pot and poured a mug for themselves, and one for Perry.

“Morning guys,” Laura said after swallowing a bite of chokoa crunch. 

LaFontaine looked up from their coffee after pouring cream into it. “Wait a minute. It’s nine am and you’re here. Eating cereal. Shouldn’t you be sleeping?”

“I was,” Laura said. “I slept here last night,”

“Laura got kicked out of her dorm last night, so she’s going to move in here,” Danny said, not looking up from her book. 

“You got kicked out?” Perry asked, eyes wide. 

Laura nodded. “Some guy from ‘maintenance’ was packing up my room when I got back from class. He said something about ‘construction.’” She made a face as she deepened her voice obnoxiously to mimic him. “I didn’t get any notice about it, but he basically said ‘too bad’, shoved a box in my arms and told me to find somewhere else to live,”

“Yeesh,” LaFontaine winced, setting down their mug. “That’s harsh. But hey, there’s plenty of room here. We’re sort of turning into a way station for misfits,” They chuckled. “It’s kinda cool,”

Laura laughed as well, but her attention was drawn away as someone else came down the stairs. “Hey guys,” Kirsch grinned. “Little nerd hottie,” He added, waving to Laura. 

Laura sighed. “Kirsch, how many times?” 

His face went from realization to sheepishness in a matter of seconds. “Right, right, sorry,” He ducked his head a little. “Hey Laura,”

“Morning, Kirsch,” She smiled, shaking her head a little as she got up from the kitchen table and put her bowl in the sink. “You sure you don’t mind bunking with JP? I mean, I could still try and find somewhere else to go,”

“Nah, we don’t mind,” Kirsch smiled, grabbing the orange juice from the fridge and chugging it from the carton, much to Perry’s horror. “I’ll start moving my things into JP’s room after breakfast. I don’t have a ton of stuff so it won’t take long,” he said, wiping his mouth with the back of his hand.

Laura grinned and hugged Kirsch, her head, of course, only reaching halfway up his chest. “Thanks, Kirsch,” 

“No problem, little--” Laura gave him a look. “...Laura,”

“Eh, he’s getting better,” Danny said, smirking over the rim of her coffee mug. “he actually calls me by my name a couple times a week now,”

Kirsch looked nothing short of elated at her comment, and Laura laughed. She was just about to ask if they had any cocoa when there was a loud bang at the door. 

“What the hell?” LaFontaine asked, looking up from their cereal.

Laura went over to the door and grabbed hold of the handle. 

“Laura wait--” Danny said, standing up, but Laura was already pulling the door open. Dany hurried over and looked over Laura, who was standing in the doorway, eyebrows raised at the sight in front of her.

“What the...?” Laura said, surprised. “My stuff...but I didn’t even tell anybody I was moving in here,” She looked up at Danny, eyebrows furrowed in confusion. 

\----

By the end of the day, Laura was finishing settling into her room. She didn’t have much more stuff than Kirsch did, so the move had only taken a few hours. The room was a decent size, and extremely cozy like the rest of the apartment. Being on the top floor, the beams in the ceiling were exposed--it looked like some past renovations had included opening up the attic--and the walls were a washed green, like the hallway outside the door. The floors were a deep hardwood as was the trim, and the furniture was old, but sturdy and solid. Laura had chosen the bed furthest away from the window, figuring it’d be warmer. The curtains weren't exactly thick and the cold radiated from the old glass windowpanes. 

After running her linens through the wash, she’d made her bed and added one of the blankets that Danny had let her borrow the night before, and her yellow pillow. On her desk sat her laptop and her books, and on the shelf that hung beside her bed on the wall, sat her Tardis mug and a few novels along with a picture frame that held a picture of her and her dad. Her Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings books sat on the bookshelf that was against the wall at the end of her bed, and her Buffy poster was tacked onto the wall. She’d left the other half of the room untouched, since it was set up for another person.

Laura looked around the room, smiling. She’d found a new home and all felt right in the world again. She jumped suddenly, an alarmed yelp escaping her lips as she heard a scuffling sound coming from outside her window. She warily stepped closer, and saw a flash of black fly by the window. Her brow furrowed in confusion. It’d looked like a crow, but she wasn’t sure. She walked over to the window and looked outside for a moment before drawing the curtains closed.

“Laura?” Danny called from downstairs. 

“Uh...yeah?” Laura called back after a moment, still looking at the now covered window. 

“We’re getting pizza, what topping do you want?”

“Um...anything’s fine,” She called back, not really paying attention. 

\----

Carmilla strode down the cobblestone path, the buckle hanging from her motorcycle jacket jingling in the dark and her boots once again quietly thumping against the stone. Maman had summoned her, for what reason, she didn’t know. She’d been doing as Maman requested, keeping an eye on the other girl from 307. She had caught a glance of her that morning--it’d looked like she was moving into that apartment. Her and some others were carrying boxes in from the hall. 

Her face was calm despite the burning she felt in her gut as she approached where her and Maman were to meet, her stride appearing confident as she moved through the darkness that cloaked Silas. Hardly anybody else was outside, save for some students sitting outside frat houses to smoke or to get away from the music and the sweat and the smell of booze that no doubt permeated every room. 

Carmilla’s dim heartbeat lurched when she spotted a white horse and a rider swathed in black upon the hilltop. Her footsteps were soft against the grass as she climbed the hill, and her fists momentarily balled in the pockets of her motorcycle jacket before relaxing again. She took a deep breath even though she didn’t need it as she crossed the last couple hundred yards that separated her and Maman. 

“Good evening, mother,” She said calmly, looking up, her eyes meeting a shrouded gaze. 

“Mircalla,” Came a smooth and subtly accented voice as cold as the air around them.

“Why have you called for me?” Carmilla asked, swallowing hard. 

Maman smiled, her horse stretching its neck to sniff at Carmilla’s hair. Maman patted his neck, and he huffed a bit. “I have made an error, darling. I took the wrong girl, the girl who poses the threat is the one you’ve been watching. You will move into her room, and bring her to me. Gain her trust, seduce her, whatever means necessary. Bring her to me, and more importantly, _bring me the signs_ ,”

Carmilla nodded. “I understand,” So it was to be this, again. “When do I move in?”

“In three day’s time,” Maman yanked on the reigns, causing her horse to shuffle his hooves and whinny softly. “and Mircalla...do behave,” Clacking and jingling could be heard among the whispers of the feathers that made up her cloak as the wind stirred them.

Carmilla nodded, her hair blowing in her face a bit. “Of course, mother,”

“Run along now, sweetling,” The rider said, fangs showing as she smiled. She maneuvered her horse so that she sat beside where Carmilla stood, and ran a gloved hand through Carmilla’s chestnut curls.

Carmilla turned, striding away from her. Once she had descended the hill, her body dissipated into a cloud of black smoke. 

\----

A few days passed, and Laura was settling nicely into life at the apartment. After moving in, she’d spent sunday night helping Perry make chocolate chip cookies, and Danny had been able to help her with that godforsaken Anthropology paper. It was now tuesday, and earlier that afternoon, she’d spent a great deal of time after everyone’s classes were over, on Kirsch’s shoulders, helping him put up Christmas lights around the living room. 

It felt like being part of a family, which was something she’d been greatly missing since being back to Silas. It was nice. 

Laura was now sitting in bed with her laptop, typing away at her journalism paper with a Tardis mug of cocoa and a few cookies beside her. She’d only nibbled at her cookies so far, being still stuffed from dinner. (JP had made an enormous pot of spaghetti and homemade sauce for everyone.) It was dark out now, being nearly eleven pm, and she was chewing her lip a little as she sat in bed, fiddling tiredly with the wire of her earbuds as she searched for the right word when the door suddenly swung open, thumping softly against the wall. 

Laura jumped, startled, and looked up to find that same leather clad woman from the other day, standing in her room, slinging a rucksack and a backpack onto the empty bed. “Uh,” Laura spluttered, pulling out her headphones. “who the hell are you?”

“Carmilla. Your new roommate,” She turned and smirked at Laura, eyes raking up and down the little human before she turned back to her rucksack and started unloading books from it.

“Roommate? Wait a minute, you can’t just move in here, did Danny say you could live here?” Laura asked, shoving her laptop off of her lap, onto the blankets beside her and getting to her feet. 

“Who, Big Red?” Carmilla snickered. “No. _But_ , like you, I’ve been kicked out of my dorm, and housing is _slim._ This was the only available place, and I have a letter from the Dean of students that says I live here now,”

“Seriously?” 

Carmilla looked at her over her shoulder. “Seriously,” She deadpanned. 

“Um...excuse me for a moment,” Laura said before exiting the room and heading downstairs. 

Danny was seated on the couch, surrounded by the papers she was grading, and looked up as Laura entered the room. “I see you’ve met our new housemate,” She grimaced.

“Yeah,” Laura said, looking a little flustered. “I mean, I know I just up and moved in here, but, like, we knew each other first, and you offered, and don’t you usually have to check with existing tenants if you can move in..?”

Danny nodded. “Yeah, and I know. But everywhere else is full, and she’s got a letter, so,” She shrugged a little. “All I know about her is that she’s a third year philosophy student, and she has a bit of a dangerous reputation.”

“Oh that’s great,” Laura said, grimacing. She turned around, hearing footsteps descending the stairs. Carmilla breezed by her on her way to the kitchen, a carton of soy milk in hand. She watched Carmilla for a moment and sighed before turning back to Danny. “I guess it could be worse. I mean, she got kicked out like I did. Maybe it won’t be so bad,”

“Yeah, I guess it could be,” Danny nodded. “If something feels weird though, just thump on your wall, okay? I’m right next door to you, remember?”

“I will,” Laura said, smiling a little. “Thanks. Night, Danny,” She waved and then turned, and padding up the stairs.

“Night,” Danny called after her.

Carmilla entered the room again just as Laura was settling down on her bed. She looked at Laura for a moment and rolled her eyes, noticing the slight tension in her posture. “Look, cutie, do you really think I’m at all ecstatic about this arrangement either? I prefer to live alone.” She said, shrugging her jacket off. And if housing coughs up some other place for me to go, believe me, I’ll _happily_ hit the road,”

Laura gave her a bit of a wary look. “It seems we’re stuck like this. And I’m sorry you got kicked out.” She paused a moment. “Agree to coexist?” 

“Deal,” Carmilla answered in a bored voice, her eyes skimming Laura’s bookshelf. She rolled her eyes again when she saw Laura’s Buffy poster and turned back to the pile of books on her bed, and began putting them away.

Laura watched her for a moment before turning back to her paper. She reached for a cookie and munched away on it, and soon the only sounds in the room were clacking keys and Carmilla’s soft footfalls as she moved around the room, putting her things away and making her bed. A half hour later, Carmilla broke the silence. 

“Where’s the bathroom?” She asked, a towel and a change of clothes in hand. 

“Downstairs off the living room,” Laura answered, not looking up from her screen. She was on a roll and wanted to try and finish before going to sleep. 

Carmilla smirked a little, and stole the last cookie from the little plate beside Laura. “Thanks cupcake,” She said, walking out the door with the cookie between her teeth.

Laura felt around, and looked up when she found the plate to be empty. Her gaping mouth turned into a scowl as she stared at the open door. She looked down at the plate after a moment, pouting ever so slightly. “That was the last one...” She sighed. She looked at her paper once more before deciding against pushing herself, and closed her laptop. She had one more paragraph, but her brain was mush and it could wait until morning. She got up and set her homework on her desk and shut off the lights, and then crawled under her covers to go to sleep. 

\---- 

Three days later, Laura was heading home from class with LaFontaine, JP, and Danny. It was only one in the afternoon, and if Carmilla was a creature of habit, she would more than likely still be curled up in bed by the time they got home, and wouldn’t emerge until five when she’d get up, get dressed, and disappear for most of the afternoon and evening, like she had the last two days. Carmilla was...hard to read. Laura was trying to figure out whether or not her reputation around campus was true or not, and was more or less coming up empty. She _seemed_ harmless enough, but there was still something strange about her. Carmilla spent her waking hours mostly reading or listening to music, and drinking...something from a travel mug. Carmilla seemed to skip most of her classes, but judging by the philosophy books and textbooks that littered her bed and desk, it looked like she always attended those lectures. On the first night Carmilla was there, Laura had woken up at around three am to find Carmilla’s bed empty. When she’d woken up again at six to finish her paper, she’d gone downstairs to get a bowl of chokoa crunch, and had run into Carmilla in the kitchen. Carmilla had been fully dressed, having just gotten in by the looks of her windswept hair, and had been standing in front of the fridge, drinking straight from her soy milk carton. Her and Laura had exchanged an awkward glance before Carmilla retreated upstairs without a word. 

Laura and Carmilla had only exchanged a few words during the last few days. Carmilla liked to keep to herself, like she’d said, and she had an uncanny knack for doing so even while living with six other people. She didn’t join the rest of them on the second night she was there when they had decided to eat dinner together, but slunk down the stairs while everyone was eating, and got herself a plate of spaghetti, (everyone was a bit broke this week and spaghetti was what they had in the house) and then headed back upstairs to eat by herself. Perry had invited her to come sit with them, but Carmilla had smirked down at her plate as she ladled sauce onto her spaghetti, and said in a mocking tone, “And be assimilated into your little dysfunctional family? Don’t think so. Nice try, though.”

The four of them were now heading across the lawn past the Le Fanu reading room. It was freezing out again, unsurprisingly. It had been cold like this for days and it didn’t seem to be letting up. “It’s not like she’s really _overtly_ antagonizing...She’s just vaguely annoying,” Laura said, pulling her coat around her tighter. “And kinda rude,”

“Perry fumed for an hour over Carmilla’s little quip at dinner the other night,” LaFontaine chuckled. “I talked her down though,”

“She keeps stealing my food,” Laura said, her nose scrunching up in frustration, “On the first night she stole the last cookie, and last night when I went back upstairs to go to bed, half of the cookies I bought to keep in my room were gone. And she stole my red flannel this morning,”

“Seriously?” Danny asked. 

“I’ve noticed it as well,” JP spoke up, “Some of my espresso has vanished as of late,”

Laura was about to say something else when she noticed someone walk up beside her. Two people, actually. “Afternoon, Miss Hollis,” Came a kind, thickly accented voice.

Laura looked up and smiled. “Oh, hi, Professor Vordenberg,” Laura looked around him and saw Professor Cochorane as well, and waved. 

Professor Vordenberg looked up at the rest of the group and nodded in greeting. “Afternoon all. Professor Cochorane here and I would like to invite you all to a Christmas party at Professor Cochorane’s apartment here on campus. Everyone in your apartment is invited,” He smiled, handing Laura a heavy, elegant envelope.

Laura glanced at the group, and they all nodded, smiling. “We’ll be there, thank you,” Laura grinned, tucking the invitation into her pocket. 

“We look forward to your company,” he smiled, and then turned down the cobblestone path that led to the campus cafe with Professor Cochorane by his side. 

“Perry’s going to be so excited,” LaFontaine grinned, “hey Laura, can I see the invitation?”

“Isn’t Perry Jewish?” JP asked as Laura handed them the invitation.

“She is,” LaFontaine nodded, “but she love any holiday party,”

Laura’s gaze was drawn away from her friends as they approached their apartment when she noticed four crows sitting in the tree outside the living room window. “Uh...guys? Have you noticed more crows around than usual?”

LaFontaine shrugged, not really paying attention as they read the invitation. 

“Eh, not really,” Danny shrugged, glancing at the crows in the trees. “There’s always crows around when it starts getting colder,”

“Yeah, I guess so...” Laura murmured, watching the crows for a moment before heading inside with everyone else.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I had a really hard time getting through this chapter but It finally started flowing just a little while ago, so I hope it was alright. I think it flows much better since I reworked it, but I've read it so many times now that it's starting to look like mud, so I can't really tell anymore.
> 
> Thanks again for reading!


	4. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Having Carmilla as a housemate is getting bloody bizarre.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I couldn't resist the pun, I'm sorry. 
> 
> Anyways, here's chapter 3! I hope you guys enjoy!
> 
> remember to check the "The dark is Rising Carmilla AU" page on my tumblr for related pictures, songs, and any related updates.
> 
> (sorry for any grammar or spelling errors, and again, if I messed up LaF's pronouns and didn't catch it, please let me know so I can fix it :)

Laura entered her bedroom, and sure enough, there was a person-shaped lump under the covers of Carmilla’s bed, and a head of chestnut curls poking out, half covered by cheetah print sheets and a green blanket. Upon closer inspection, she could see the red plaid of her flannel shirt poking out amongst said curls. 

“I _swear_ ,” Laura hissed, her nose bunching up in frustration as she dropped her bag beside her bed.

The covers that Carmilla was cocooned in shifted slightly, and a squinted eye could be seen. “That little bunched up face you make when you’re angry is _hilarious_ buttercup,” She chuckled, voice scratchy with sleep. 

Laura turned around. “Shouldn’t you be in class or something?”

“Probably,” Carmilla sighed, and rolled over, burrowing deeper under her quilt. 

Laura huffed in frustration and turned on her heel, leaving the room. She hadn’t bothered to take her jacket or scarf off yet, having decided to go out again. Despite being bitterly cold, it was nice out, and she wanted some hot chocolate from the campus coffee house. It was a lot better than cocoa from the packet. 

“Hey guys, I’m going to the coffee shop, anybody want anything?”

“Mind if I tag along?” LaFontaine asked, looking up from their laptop. 

Laura shrugged, smiling. “Sure,” 

LaFontaine soon followed her out the door, bundled up once again. As they walked down the path, Laura looked back at the tree outside the apartment to find that the crows were still there. All four looked at her curiously, cocking their heads back and forth and rustling their wings. 

LaFontaine looked over at her with and eyebrow raised. “L,” they said, but she didn’t look away. “Hey, frosh,” They said a little louder this time, tapping Laura’s shoulder. 

“Sorry, what?” Laura asked, looking back at LaF. 

“You zoned out there big time,” They said, “You okay?”

“Oh, yeah, I’m fine,” Laura said. She glanced back at the tree once more but the crows were gone. 

LaFontaine nodded, but didn’t look totally convinced. They let it go for now, though. “Going to get hot chocolate?”

Laura looked at them, grinning once again. “What else would I get?”

\----

Laura and LaFontaine were soon standing in line, a few people back from the counter, bickering over which campy scifi movie they should all watch that night. Behind them, someone with a service dog walked in, and took a seat at one of the small tables near where Laura and LaFontaine stood.   
“Come on, Day of the Triffids is _gold,_ ” LaFontaine argued, “what’s better than man eating plants? And we can reminisce about those giant mushrooms the Alchemy Department grew last year--”

“Oh god, I’d rather not,” Laura said, cringing at the memory. “I don’t think Perry would appreciate that either, isn’t she still convinced that that whole ordeal was a cooking club prank?”

“Yeah,” LaFontaine chuckled, “her capacity for denial astounds me...thankfully it’s only about anything in the freak show vein,”

“So, no Day of the Triffids,” Laura said. She though for a moment. “Village of the Damned?”

LaFontiane narrowed their eyes at her for a moment before nodding. “Fine. But only because the biology is fun to theorize about,”

“Noted,” Laura said, looking amused. Her amused look soon turned to confusion though when she noticed a strange noise behind her. “do you...hear growling?” she asked after a moment, turning around.

LaFontaine looked over Laura’s shoulder as she turned around to find that same service dog staring at Laura with his teeth slightly bared, a low growl sounding from his throat. 

“LaFontaine raised an eyebrow. “Dude, what did you roll in?” They asked, glancing over at Laura. 

Laura looked back at them, mouth agape. “Are you saying that I smell?” She asked incredulously.

“I’m saying that to him you probably do,” LaFontaine shrugged. “there’s something about you he clearly doesn’t like,”

Laura bit her lip, watching the dog for minute. His owner looked worried, and she didn’t want to make it worse. The dog needed to focus and she was clearly getting in the way of that. “Y’know, I’m just gonna go,” Laura said, taking some money out of her pocket to give to LaFontaine, “I’ll wait outside, I don’t want to disturb the dog,”

“Okay, meet you out there,” LaF nodded, taking the five pound note from her. 

Professor Cochorane watched Laura over the rim of her coffee mug as she quickly left the coffee house. She looked at Professor Vordenberg, nodding her head slightly towards Laura. He nodded as well, eyes serious. 

“We have to talk to her,” He said. 

“All in due time,” She replied.

“It’s drawing closer, we’re going to need to speak to her soon,” He said, breaking off a piece of his biscotti and dunking it in his coffee. 

“All in due time, Baron,” Professor Cochorane said again, a little firmer this time. “the timing must be right,”

\----

“Hey, Perr?” LaFontaine called as they entered the apartment with Laura in tow. “I got you a bear claw,”

Perry was sitting on the couch, and looked up from her textbook, smiling. “Thanks sweetie,” She tilted her head back as LaFontaine leaned over to peck her lips and place the paper bag on her lap. 

Laura grinned at them and headed back upstairs to get some of her homework. Doing her homework in her room was not an option anymore with Carmilla either sleeping or being decidedly broody, so for the last couple days she’d settled for doing it at the kitchen counter. She opened the door quietly, peeking around it to see if Carmilla was still asleep.

“I’m awake, cupcake,” Came a bored voice.

Laura straightened up from her half crouched position and entered the room. “Oh. Right. Good,” She said, heading for her bag, which sat on her bed, avoiding Carmilla’s eyes. 

Carmilla smirked at her amusedly, eyes trailing up and down Laura’s back. Carmilla was spread out on her bed, fully dressed, unsurprisingly, in black skinny jeans and one of her many see through tops, with a paperback open on her chest. 

Laura glanced back at her after a moment, ignoring the vaguely predatory, yet somehow still bored look Carmilla was giving her, and sighed when she saw that Carmilla was _still_ wearing her red flannel. “You know, I get that we have to share a room and all, but do clothes _have_ to be part of that equation?”

Carmilla looked down at the flannel, as if just realizing she was still wearing it, and looked back up at Laura. “I was actually going to ask you where you got it,” She said, running her thumb along the fabric of the cuff absentmindedly. “it’s nice,”

Laura was a bit taken aback, the compliment sounding out of place coming from Carmilla’s mouth. “Oh. It was my mom’s,” she shrugged. “I don’t remember where she got it,”

“Was?” Carmilla asked, raising an eyebrow.

Laura’s insides went cold. She straightened up from where she was hunched over her backpack, and swallowed hard. “Yeah,”

Carmilla hummed, not pushing the subject. She lifted her book again, resuming her place on the page.

Laura turned around again and sighed, notebook in hand. “Look...for the record, I’m sorry again that you got kicked out. Nobody deserves that. Hell, not even you do,” Laura turned back to her bed and grabbed a few pens from the front pocket of her backpack and then headed out of their room

Carmilla’s eyes left her book and she looked at the open door where Laura had just passed through for a moment, her brow furrowed.

Downstairs, Laura took a seat at the kitchen counter on one of the three bar stools that sat on the living room side of the counter, and spread her things out to begin working on her Lit paper. Behind her, LaFontaine and Kirsch were animatedly talking about where and when they should get the Christmas tree--Christmas trees were allowed in apartments, just not dorms--and how massive it should be. 

“You guys, it’s not even December yet,” Danny said, sounding exasperated yet amused by their enthusiasm.

“And?” Kirsch and LaFontaine answered in unison. 

Laura snickered to herself, shaking her head slightly as she read over her notes. She plugged in her earbuds and opened a word document, settling in to get to work. 

An hour or so later, Laura was a few paragraphs in, and didn’t notice as Carmilla quietly entered the room and went to the fridge, taking a swig from her soy milk carton. She took her travel mug from the cabinet and filled it up, making sure her back was to everyone as she did so. She glanced back at Laura to make sure she was still occupied before putting the carton back in the fridge, and then headed back upstairs.

Laura sat back and rubbed her eyes, taking a little mental break before continuing. She broke off a piece of her cookie, and grinned as she watched Natalie jump onto the counter. “Hey kitty kitty,” She smiled, reaching out to pet her. Natalie looked at her warily, one paw slightly raised from the counter. She sniffed at Laura’s hand carefully, and then hissed at her. “Come on Nat, you came right up to me the other day,” Laura said softly, reaching out to pet Natalie’s head. The tabby hissed again and swatted at Laura’s hand, carving three angry red lines down the back of her hand. Laura gasped in pain, withdrawing her hand and holding it against her chest, a grimace twisting her features. 

“Natalie, no!” Kirsch scolded, rushing over and picking the cat up to eye level. “ _That is not nice._ Laura, are you okay?” He asked, looking over at her as she slid off the stool and headed for the sink.

“I’m fine,” She assured him, glancing back at him as she poured a few drops of soap onto her hand and sudsed it up. She winced, hissing as the soap burned the cuts. “It was my fault, I should just stay away from animals for a while,” 

“Did something else happen?” Danny asked, looking worried.

“Yeah, someone’s service dog kept growling at her when we went to get coffee,” LaFontaine said.

“That’s strange,” Perry said, looking concerned, “service dogs are trained so they don’t get distracted like that,”

“Exactly,” LaF said, leaning back into the cushions. “it was really weird,”

“And the crows,” Laura said, thinking out loud. 

“Crows?” Perry asked. 

“Yeah, I’ve noticed more around lately,” Laura said, running a hand through her hair. “like _everywhere_ I go,” 

“Huh...weird,” Kirsch said, looking perplexed. 

“Laura, do you need help with that?” Perry asked, starting to get up. 

“No, I have some bandaids in my room,” She said, heading towards the stairs. “thanks though,”

Perry nodded, settling down on the couch again.

“Okay, so Laura suggested Village of the Damned for scifi night,” LaFontaine said excitedly, changing the subject.

“I can’t make scifi night,” Kirsch said, looking a little crestfallen, but brightened up again after a moment. “I have a date with SJ,”

The conversation faded out to Laura as she headed upstairs to her room. 

Upstairs, Carmilla’s eyes froze on the page as she caught the scent of fresh blood. She looked up to find Laura walking into the room, red lines down the back of her left hand. “What the frilly hell happened to you?”

“Kirsch’s cat’s in a mood. Or maybe it’s me. It could be me, animals don’t seem to like me very much today,” Laura said, fishing around in the drawer of her desk with her good hand in search of a bandaid. 

Carmila made a noncommittal grunt and went back to her book. “Eh, the fur ball doesn’t much like me either,” She drawled, sounding rather bored.

Laura turned, peeling the part of the bandaid she finally located. “I’m shocked,”

\----

Later on that night, Laura headed up the stairs, yawning a few times on the way up. She had, much to her embarrassment, nodded off on Danny’s shoulder briefly, and had decided to go up to bed rather than fall asleep on Danny again. Danny had been, admittedly, very comfy to fall asleep on (and she smelled really nice) but she wanted to catch herself before she really fell asleep and did something mortifying, like drooling on her. She was excruciatingly awkward enough as it was, she didn’t need that on top of it. 

She toed open the door to her room, shuffling in and setting her things down on her desk. Carmilla was nowhere to be found. Her bed was rumpled and a book was laying open on her pillow, as usual, but otherwise there was no trace of the other woman. She’d gone out this late the last couple nights as well. Laura didn’t mind, although she was curious about where Carmilla could possibly be going so late at night. Laura went to go pull back her covers, but paused when she saw something laid out on the foot of her bed. Her flannel shirt. She picked it up, finding that it was freshly laundered. It smelled a little different than it normally did though, when she buried her face in it. (It was just something she always did with this shirt.) It smelled like the laundry, but the inside of the collar smelled a little like spruce and wood smoke, and a tinge of something flowery, like lavender. Laura glanced back at Carmilla’s bed for a moment, a tiny smile tugging at her lips. Carmilla had washed her shirt? That was...strangely considerate of her. Laura sighed contentedly and pulled it on over her teeshirt, pulling the cuffs over her hands and bunching them up in her fists, and crawled into bed. 

\----

The next morning, Laura was curled up on the couch with a mug of cocoa, reading a fanfic that had updated while she was asleep. Carmilla was still up in bed, an unmoving lump under her pile of blankets after presumably getting in ridiculously late. Laura had woken up around four in the morning to quiet footsteps, but she must have drifted off again within minutes because she didn’t remember anything else. 

Perry was in the kitchen, in the process of making a batch of pancakes. She sighed when she found the milk carton to be empty, and tossed it into the garbage, adding milk to the list that was pinned to the fridge with a magnet. She remembered seeing a carton of soy milk in the fridge somewhere, and figured it would be fine to substitute this one time. Finally having located it a few minutes later, she grabbed the measuring cup and went to pour it out, but promptly shrieked, dropping the measuring cup and the carton, splattering the contents of the cartoon all over the counter.

Laura jumped to her feet, running over to see what was wrong. “Perry?? Perry what happe--” The words died in her throat at the sight of thick, red liquid splattered across the counter and pooled in the bowl with the rest of the batter. “Uh, Perry, what is that?” Laura asked, eyes wide.

“It-it’s probably just a prank set by LaFontaine, or maybe something they needed to keep cold for the lad,” Perry said, nodding to herself. “yes, that’s it, that has to be it,”

“Guys??” LaFontaine called, rushing down the stairs. “Guys I heard yelling, what’s wrong--” They stopped short, much like Laura had, staring at the mess on the counter.

“Very, ah, very amusing prank, LaFontaine,” Perry said, voice and hands still shaky from the shock.

“Uh, Perr, I don’t set any pranks,” They said, looking between Laura and Perry, their expression just as confused as Laura’s.

“Oh, well, then it’s something for the lab then, right?” Perry asked, the look in her eyes a bit desperate now, obviously wanting a harmless explanation. 

“No...I didn’t bring anything home. Everything I use I keep at the lab,” They walked forward and picked up the carton, looking at it, and swishing its contents. 

“Wait, isn’t that Carmilla’s soy milk?”Laura said, noticing ‘MINE’ scrawled in red letters on the side. “I saw her drinking out of it the other day when I came down to make breakfast,”

“Guys, this is blood,” LaFontaine said after taking a whiff of the contents. 

“I-I’m sorry?” Perry spluttered, “Are you sure?”

“Perr, I’m a bio major. I’ve worked with enough blood samples to know what blood smells like,”

“Wait a minute, you’re saying that’s real?” Laura asked, eyes widening. “I watched Carmilla _drink_ out of that,”

“In that case dark and broody has a sick sense of humor or she’s got some major explaining to do,” They said, eyeing the carton suspiciously. 

“I’m going to get the bleach,” Perry said, taking the bowl from the counter and dumping it into the garbage.

LaFontaine set the carton down and Laura went to the cabinet to grab the box of Chokoa Crunch. Dry cereal it was, then. She sat back down on the couch, hugging the box of cereal with her knees, slowly munching on it as the gears in her head turned. She brushed it off after a few minutes. No, that was ridiculous. She turned back to her laptop, hand rummaging in the cereal box as Carmilla came down the stairs, running a hand through her bedhead hair.

Laura raised an eyebrow. “You’re up early,”

Carmilla grunted something that sounded like ‘I’m hungry’ and headed for the fridge. 

“You’re not going to find your ‘soy milk’ in there,” Laura said in a clipped voice. 

Carmilla froze for a split second, but then a smirk graced her lips. “It was a prank, cutie. Relax,”

“ _Real blood_ in the milk carton is your idea of a prank?”

“It was _pig’s_ blood. And getting Suzy Homemaker’s panties in a wad is uniquely entertaining,” Carmilla snickered. She could hear ginger number two rummaging around in the pantry. She closed the fridge and somehow still managed to saunter upstairs while still being half asleep. 

Laura’s brow creased in confusion. Carmilla had grunted something about being hungry, but upon finding out that he soy milk wasn’t available, she’d gone back up to sleep. If she was hungry, why wouldn’t she just get something else? Unless...no. No, that was impossible. Silas was creepy on a good day, but that was pushing it. 

The front door opened a few minutes later, and in walked Danny, looking rather chipper, dressed in her track duds and her running shoes. “Hey guys,” She panted, smiling. She bent over to unlace her shoes, and then dropped down onto the couch next to Laura once they were off. 

Laura gave her a disbelieving look. “How in the hell do you still go for morning runs? It’s _freezing_ outside,” 

Danny shrugged, her face rapidly turning pink as the cold slowly left her. “It feels good,”

Laura shook her head and stuffed her hand in the box of cereal again. she offered the box to Danny once she’d extracted her hand again.

Danny took a handful. “Gonna go all out for your birthday tomorrow?” She grinned, “Special day, the big two--oh,”

Laura laughed. “If by going all out you mean taking a day off from homework, getting takeout with you guys and marathoning Harry Potter, then absolutely,”

“If that’s what you want to do then we’ll do it,” Danny smiled. “come on, I have all the Harry Potter movies up in my room,”

Laura barely had enough time to set down the cereal box before Danny grabbed her hand and dragged her upstairs.


	5. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Laura and the gang celebrate Laura's 20th birthday, and Carmilla makes a surprising gesture.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry about the late update, I was on a roll but then something came up with my mom and then my wifi crapped out on me for like a half an hour...and this chapter ended up being way longer than anticipated. Also, apologies if there are any spelling/grammar mistakes--I finished editing this at six in the morning on no sleep, haha. Let me know if anything is particularly glaring.
> 
> thanks so much for reading!

Carmilla lingered in the hallway outside the apartment door for a moment as she listened for any sign of movement from inside. Hearing none, she inserted her key into the door and silently slipped inside, locking the door behind her. The vampire ran a hand through her windswept hair and sighed as she let the straps of her backpack slip down leather clad arms, slinging it quietly onto the counter. She would have much rathered spend the night on the roof with her book, but thanks to Betty Crocker dumping two days worth of blood down the drain, she’d had to do a blood run. At least the campus clinic was well stocked. 

Carmilla took off her jacket and unzipped her bag, pulling out a fresh soy milk container, and a large bag of blood. She had two more in her bag, but she could stash them elsewhere until her carton needed refilling. Once her carton was filled, she took a long sip from it and then put it in the fridge, and then quietly went out back and stuffed the bag into the bottom of the garbage bin. Grabbing her things from the counter on her way, she headed upstairs and quietly entered her room. She paused, hearing Laura’s covers rustle. This girl was such a light sleeper. She waited until the rustling stopped, and then continued over to her bed after setting her things on her desk. She was just kicking her shoes off when Laura’s covers rustled again.

“Mmph...Carmilla...?” Laura mumbled, picking her head up a little. 

“Go back to sleep, creampuff,” Carmilla sighed tiredly, climbing into bed. She didn’t even bother getting undressed. 

Laura blearily look at her phone, wincing at the brightness. “It’s six in the morning, where have you been all night?” She asked, locking her phone once again.

Carmilla groaned against her pillow. “I don’t ask you about your cookie eating habits, don’t ask me about my sleep habits. _Go back to sleep._ ”

\----

Laura woke up a few hours later, and looked over to Carmilla’s side of the room to find her sprawled out on her bed, fully clothed and half under her covers. She rolled her eyes at the sight, remembering how crabby Carmilla had been earlier that morning. Apparently Carmilla’s minuscule little burst of kindness had begun and ended with washing and returning her shirt. 

Laura got out from under her covers and stretched, yawning quietly, and shuffled out of her room. She tied her hair back as she descended the stairs and made a beeline for the cabinet above the stove where she kept her hot chocolate mix. She was just putting the kettle on when Perry came trotting down the stairs, her fiery curls bouncing with every step. 

“Happy birthday, Laura!” Perry said excitedly, rushing over to hug her.

Laura grunted as Perry’s arms wrapped tightly around her, but then laughed, hugging her back. “Thanks, Perry,”

Perry pulled back after a moment, holding Laura at arm’s length. “How about chocolate chip pancakes? Without the blood, of course,” She cringed a little at the mental image she still had of the blood in the pancake batter.

Laura laughed, nodding. “Sure, thanks, Perry,” She put the burner on for the kettle, and went to get a bowl out to start making the pancake batter, but Perry shooed her away. 

“No no no, it’s your birthday, go sit, I’ll make them,” Perry said, herding her over to the stools behind the counter. 

“Are you sure--?” 

“Yes, Laura, go sit,”

“Fine, fine,” Laura said, holding her hands up with an amused roll of her eyes. She took a seat at the counter after adding hot water to her cocoa mix. 

“ _God_ , could you people make any more noise?” A scratchy voice grumbled from behind Laura. 

Laura turned around to find Carmilla walking towards the kitchen. She’d changed since Laura left the room, exchanging her jeans and gauzy top for a tiny pair of black shorts and a Pink Floyd teeshirt. Her chestnut hair was rumpled and fell messily over her eyes and around her shoulders after she raked her fingers through it, her eyeliner smudged a bit around tired eyes. Her feet dragged slightly as she walked, and a blue envelope was clutched in her hand. Perry stiffened, eyeing Carmilla warily as she came closer. 

Carmilla rolled her eyes. “ _Relax_ , Betty Crocker. Don’t get your panties in a wad, I’m just thirsty,” She looked down at the envelope in her hand, and then slid it across the counter to Laura. “Happy birthday, cupcake,” She said absently, turning to the fridge and pulling out her soy milk carton.

Laura stared at the envelope for a moment, stunned, before opening it. “Uh, thanks, Carmilla, I didn’t really expect--” She stopped mid sentence, her surprised look turning to annoyance when she pulled the card out of the blue envelope. The number twelve was enthusiastically announced on it, surrounded by brightly colored cartoon streamers and balloons. “ _Twelve_?” Laura asked, her eyes narrowing. “ _Really?_ I’m well aware that I’m vertically challenged, but _seriously?_ ”

“Well excuse me for getting confused, what with your little bunched up face that is _oh so_ reminiscent of every twelve year old I’ve ever laid eyes on, and your _abiding_ love for that little boy with a stick and a scar,” Carmilla drawled, an almost playful look in her eyes as she smirked at Laura. 

Laura stared at her for a moment, taken aback by that look in her eyes. She didn’t exactly associate Carmilla up with _playful_ , but that was the only way she could describe the look in her eyes. But then the insult to Harry Potter sunk in, and her eyes narrowed once again. “Excuse me, but Harry Potter is a modern classic loved by _all_ ages,”

“It’s true, LaFontaine and Danny both love Harry Potter,” Perry said, taking down a frying pan from the hook on the beam it hung on over the counter. “JP does too. But I think Kirsch just watches it because he likes Emma Watson,” 

“And that’s supposed to convince me?” Carmilla asked incredulously, raising an eyebrow as she took another swig from her soy milk carton. She closed the cap and put the carton back in the fridge, and then turned back to the counter, grabbing a handful of chocolate chips from the bag that still sat open just as LaFontaine came down the stairs. 

LaFontaine shuffled into the kitchen, their blue plaid pajamas looking every bit as rumpled as their red hair. “Morning guys,” They smiled tiredly, kissing Perry on the cheek before making their way to the coffee maker. “Happy one year closer to death, L,” They added cheerfully, shooting Laura a toothy grin. Carmilla snorted and headed out of the kitchen. 

“ _LaFontaine_ ,” Perry hissed reproachfully. 

“It’s fine, Perr,” Laura chuckled, shaking her head and taking a sip of her cocoa. “Thanks, LaF,” She looked back at the stairs after a moment, watching as a bare foot disappeared around the corner at the top of the stairs. She watched that spot for another minute or so, before turning back to the card that sat in front of her. She tucked it back into the envelope, and rested her hand on it, tapping her fingers along the paper thoughtfully.

Perry just scowled at LaFontaine, and continued to coat the frying pan with cooking spray. LaFontaine had the decency to at least look sheepish under her gaze, but couldn’t help the smile that still quirked the corners of their mouth. 

“You guys want to get the christmas tree today?” Laura asked, stifling a yawn. 

LaFontaine’s attention turned back to Laura, and a grin spread across their face. “Do you want to?”

“Yeah! It sounds like fun,” Laura smiled, “I haven’t gone out to get a tree since the year before last. I miss it. And our only other plan was to watch Harry Potter tonight and get takeout. We can get the tree, come home and watch movies, and decorate it tomorrow or something,”

“I’m game,” LaFontaine grinned, reaching for the half and half in the fridge. They poured some into their own coffee and then into Perry’s. 

“Sounds lovely,” Perry smiled, ladling the batter into the pan. 

“Did someone make coffee?” Danny asked, entering the kitchen. 

“Yep,” LaFontaine said, holding out a mug for her. 

“Oh thank god,” Danny sighed, taking it and immediately filling it. She added three sugars and plopped down next to Laura at the counter.

“Long night?” Laura asked, smiling a little as she nudged Danny’s shoulder gently. Danny’s hair was tied back in a messy bun, and she was dressed in a track tank top and a pair of plaid lounge pants, her feet bare. Laura bit her lip a little. He little crush was not letting up with time, it seemed. 

“Yeah, long night?” LaFontaine grinned.

Danny gave LaFontaine a half-hearted glare. “Yeah, _grading papers._ ” She said, taking another sip of coffee. She looked over at Laura and grinned. “Happy birthday,” She said, nudging her back.

Laura glanced down at her Tardis mug, grinning. “Thanks, Danny,”

Danny smiled and looked back at her coffee, but the blue envelope under Laura’s hand caught her eye. “Who’s that from?”

Laura looked down. “Oh, uh, Carmilla,”

“Carmilla?” Danny asked, raising an eyebrow.

Laura nodded. 

“It’s a rather rude card,” Perry said, “It’s for a twelve year old. Literally, it has ‘twelve’ written on it,” 

“She did?” Danny asked, making a face. “That’s ballsy,”

“Actually I think she was trying to make...a joke,” Laura said a little uncertainly.

“Elvira? Make a joke?” Danny snorted.

Laura shrugged. “She seemed almost...playful,”

“Playful,” Danny repeated, eyebrows raised. 

Laura shrugged again and looked back down at the card, chewing her lip a little. She couldn’t help the feeling that Carmilla’s intentions had actually been genuine.  
\----

An hour and half a dozen finished stacks of pancakes later, everyone headed back to their rooms to get bundled up to go pick out the tree. Laura quietly entered her room, expecting Carmilla to still be asleep, which she was. She closed the door behind her and quietly got dressed in a pair of jeans and her red flannel shirt, and then pulled on her Silas hoodie and jean jacket over that, and then laced up her brown insulated boots. She took her red beanie from her headboard and placed Carmilla’s card in it’s place, and looked over at Carmilla again as she pulled the beanie on. She chewed her lip a little, watching her for a moment. 

“Carmilla?” She finally said.

The covers rustled quietly, and Carmilla looked up with half closed eyes. “What?”

“Uhm...thanks for the card,” Laura said, fiddling with the pair of gloves in her hands. “really,” She offered a little smile. 

Carmilla gave her a look that was half between a smirk and a tiny smile. “No problem creampuff,” 

“I don’t suppose you’d want to come pick out a tree with us?” Laura asked.

Carmilla scoffed. “And spend hours out in the freezing cold, surrounded by hollering children while looking at hundreds of small identical trees only to pick one out and drag it back here? No thanks,” She drawled, rolling over. 

Laura sighed and rolled her eyes, but somehow couldn’t bring herself to be genuinely annoyed. She grabbed her phone and her wallet, and walked out the door. 

Carmilla rolled over again, tired eyes looking where Laura had just stood, a little smile playing with her lips.

\----

“Carmilla didn’t want to come?” Perry asked, watching as Laura locked the front door to the apartment behind her. 

“No,” Laura said, shaking her head. “She went back to sleep,”

Danny brightened up. “Well that’s good,” She hadn’t ben a fan of the idea of Carmilla joining them.

“How is she still enrolled?” JP asked, looking confused. “She sleeps all day, correct?”

Laura nodded. “More or less. She didn’t get in until six this morning,”

“Six?” Danny asked, looking surprised. “Where the hell does she go all night?”

Laura shrugged. “I have no idea...anyways, Kirsch, did you grab the saw?”

“Got it!” He said excitedly, holding it up and almost hitting LaFontaine in the head in the process. LaFontaine gently took it from him, stowing it in their backpack as he sheepishly scratched the back of his neck. 

The group started down the path that would lead them off campus, all pulling their coats tighter around themselves and readjusting scarves and hats. It was overcast, though there were breaks in the clouds here and there, revealing the clear blue sky behind the clouds. Gusts of wind occasionally barreled down the quad, seeping through jeans and gloves, whipping their hair in their faces. Laura had to adjust her beanie three times to tuck enough of her hair away so that she could see, causing LauFontaine to snicker at the sight of her struggling with her hat and almost bumping into Danny as they walked, which set JP an Kirsch off. LaFontaine and Perry were hand in hand, while Danny joked that Laura should stay behind her so she didn’t blow away.

“ _Ha ha_ ,” Laura laughed sarcastically, lightly shoving Danny.

“I’m kidding, Hollis,” Danny grinned, pulling Laura into her side and wrapping an arm around her shoulders. 

Laura blushed, and then burst out laughing when Danny yelped as her green trapper hat was nearly blown clean off her head. “Now who’s going to blow away?” 

Danny roller her eyes, shaking her head as they walked through the creepy coral-like gate that marked the entrance of Silas University. They turned onto a narrow, one-way cobblestone street lined with shops and and little eateries. White Christmas lights were wrapped around every lamp post, and more than one shop owner was outside hanging wreathes, or inside setting up menorahs in the windows or simply tacking paper snowflakes to the glass. 

“Hey, you guys want to stop for coffee before we go to the farm?” Kirsch asked, pointing out a coffee house a little ways up the street. 

Everyone agreed, eager to get a little break from the cold, and to get something warm in their hands. They hurried up the road as another gust of wind blew down between the buildings, and ducked into the doorway under a sign that read Old Traveler’s Coffee. The coffee house was dimly lit, the over head lights turned way down low, and the far end of the room was lit mostly by a crackling wood fire. Little candles were lit on each table, and the tables themselves and the chairs were made of worn, rich brown wood, much like the floors. A pastry case sat to the left of the door, and was filled with all kinds of confections, and various carafes and machines sat behind the counter. In front of the counter lay an intricately woven but worn, old rug, and on the walls between a few bookshelves hung seemingly ancient paintings of various people from all different time periods. 

“Afternoon, all,” Came a friendly voice from behind the curtain that separated behind the counter from the back room. A tall man stepped out from behind the green curtain, smiling pleasantly. He looked to be in his mid-twenties, with short black hair and dark, but kind eyes. He was dressed simply in a teeshirt and jeans, with a green apron over his chest. “I’m Theo, what can I get for you all today?” 

One by one they placed their orders, which Theo jotted down. “Hey, Mattie? Mind lending a hand?” He called, presumably to someone in the back room. 

“Yes, yes, I’m coming,” Mattie sighed, retying her apron as she came out from behind the curtain. She looked to be about the same age as Theo, and she was dressed in deep red blouse and a black skirt, with an apron over top that matched Theo’s. The light of the flames danced over her rich, dark skin and reflected in her eyes as she looked the group over. Her eyes flicked to Theo, and they shared a look before she started on the drinks Theo hadn’t gotten to yet.

“Cold outside, yeah?” Theo asked, looking up at the group, who all nodded vigorously. 

“Freezing,” Laura said, “And really windy, Danny and I almost lost our hats,”

Mattie chuckled, “Well, you’re only going to want to hang onto them tighter. It’s only going to get worse,” her expression darkened as she glanced out the window, watching as five crows flew by. She sighed and shook her head a little.

“Worse?” JP asked, looking alarmed. 

“Much worse,” Theo said, putting two coffees up on top of the pastry case. He began on the next one as Danny and Perry took their coffees. “It’s supposed to peak just after Christmas,”

“how can you be so sure? That’s a month away,” LaFontane said, taking their coffee from Mattie. 

“Trust us,” Mattie answered solemnly, “it will get worse,”

“I can ring you up down here,” Theo said, looking at Kirsch. Kirsch nodded, taking the few pound notes everyone handed him. 

Mattie smiled at Laura as she handed her her cocoa. “Happy birthday, Laura. The cocoa’s on us, darling,”

“I--uh--thanks,” Laura stuttered, surprised. She smiled back, though an uneasy feeling settled into her stomach. She turned and stood by Danny, and soon they were all headed towards the door. 

“Oh, happy birthday, Laura!” Theo called, smiling. 

Laura turned and waved, and then hurried out the door behind Danny. 

“How did they know it was your birthday?” Danny asked, glancing back at the coffee house. 

“I have _no_ idea,” Laura said, following her gaze for a moment. She turned back in the direction they were headed, looking up for a moment as she heard cawing above her. The uneasy feeling that was settled into the pit of her stomach worsened, and she walked a little closer to Danny and the gang.

\----

Several hours later, the gang returned home, a monsterous tree in tow. All of them were absolutely chilled to the bone, all pink-cheeked and chattering. Danny and Kirsch dragged the tree inside while LaFontaine went to get the tree stand from the pantry. JP went overt the fire place to get a fire going, and Perry and Laura carried the takeout bags to the kitchen. 

“We _really_ couldn’t have gotten a smaller tree?” Danny grunted, getting the tree upright with Kirsch as they waited for LaFontaine to come back with the stand. 

“Absolutely not,” LaF said, shaking their head as they came back into the room. 

“Come on D-Bear, it’s awesome!” Kirsch grinned.

“I think it’s beautiful,” Laura said, helping Perry unpack the Chinese food they’d gotten on the way home.

Danny just threw her arms up in surrender once they got the tree situated in the stand. “Whatever. I’m just happy I don’t have to carry it anymore,”

Laura laughed, shaking her head. “I’m going to go dump my coat upstairs, be back in a few minutes,” She said, and then ran upstairs.

Danny watched her go with a furrowed brow. She didn’t like that Laura had to room with Carmilla. Something about that girl felt off, felt dangerous. Everything she’d heard about her around campus pointed to bad news, despite her being a fairly quiet housemate. She made a mental note to talk to Laura about it later. 

Carmilla’s eyes flicked up from her book as Laura entered the room, but then returned to the page. Her eyes moved up again after a moment, and she watched as Laura moved around the room. Laura’s honey brown hair was windblown and a little messy, her cheeks and nose red from the cold. Her fingers were red as well, and looked a little dry as she took her coat and boots off. She ran her fingers through her hair in an attempt to tame it, but it really didn’t have much of an effect, and her brown eyes look tired, but happy. 

Laura grabbed a pair of sweatpants and went into the bathroom to change, and came back after a moment, lingering in the doorway. “Uh...hey,” She said, looking at Carmilla and raising her hand a little. Carmilla raised her hand a little in return, but didn’t look up from her book. Laura waited for a moment, simultaneously waiting to see if Carmilla would grace her with a verbal response, and contemplating what was churning in her head. When it was clear that Carmilla had no intention of speaking, Laura went ahead. “Uhm...I know you’re not into Harry Potter if this morning was _any_ indication, but we’re going to marathon some of the movies. And we got Chinese. There’s plenty if you want any. Do you like Chinese? I haven’t really seen you eat much other than chocolate so I didn’t know what to get you so I just ordered extra chicken and broccoli, and--and I should probably stop talking,” She heaved a breath, having not taken one amidst her word vomit. 

Carmilla suppressed a smile at her inane rambling as she turned a page. “I’m not all that fond of watching hours upon hours of a little boy playing with his wand, but thanks, cutie,” She drawled, looking over the top of her book with a faint smirk. 

Laura wrinkled her nose at Carmilla’s comment about Harry Potter, but let it slide. “Suit yourself,” She shrugged, turning away and making her way downstairs. 

Downstairs, Kirsch and Danny were fighting over the last egg roll as JP got the movie set up. Laura grabbed a bowl from the counter and a pair of chopsticks, and began heaping rice and cashew chicken into the bowl. 

“Which movie are we starting with?” Laura asked, ripping open a soy sauce packet.

“Prisoner of Azkaban,” LaFontaine grinned. 

“That’s your favorite, right?” Danny asked, snatching the egg roll before Kirsch could.

“Yeah,” Laura grinned, taking a seat next to Perry on the couch. 

Danny took the spot on Laura’s other side, and held out a little box. “Presents first?” She smiled. 

“Always presents first,” Kirsch said enthusiastically, holding up a misshapen, clumsily wrapped package about the side of his fist. 

“You guys, you didn’t have to get me anything,” Laura said, sitting up and setting her bowl down. 

“Oh come on, just take it,” Danny said, holding the gift out closer to Laura. 

Lura gave her a look, but thanked her, and took the little package from her. She took the top off the box, and her eyes lit up. “Danny! You shouldn’t have!” she gasped, picking up the little brass magnifying glass by the matching chain it hung from. She set down the box and put it on right away, turning the little handle in her hand. “it’s beautiful, thank you!” She leaned over and hugged the redhead tight. 

Danny laughed, holding her close. “No problem, Laura. I remember you said you liked it when we were in town a few weeks ago,”

Laura pulled back just as Kirsch plopped down in one of the beat up arm chairs. “Hey Laura, heads up!”

Laura looked up just in time, and caught the package he lobbed over to her. She ripped off the wrapping paper to find a worn, but beautiful brown leather belt that had swirling patterns etched into it, and strong leather cord woven through it to create an ‘x’ pattern at intervals down the belt. 

“I’m kinda broke this week because I had to buy cat litter for Natalie,” Kirsch said, looking remarkably like a puppy who wanted to please his human, “but when I was looking through my things for something to give to you, that totally jumped out at me. I’ve had it for a long time. Found it at a street market when I was in middle school, I think,”

“Kirsch, it’s awesome, thank you,” Laura grinned, getting up to give him a hug. 

\----

Halfway into the movie, everyone had finished dinner. Laura was leaning into Danny’s side, the magnifying glass necklace still around her neck, and she fiddled with the belt absently as she watched the movie, liking how the leather felt against her fingers. LaFontaine and Perry had gotten her a box set of all the seasons of Buffy on DVD, and JP had gotten her a special edition of the Sorcerer’s Stone, both of which sat on the coffee table, next to where her feet were rested. 

Her attention was pulled away from the movie when she heard the quiet padding of feet come down the stairs. She looked behind her and sure enough, there was Carmilla, making her way towards the Chinese food that sat on the counter. Laura smiled a little and turned back to the movie, but her attention was yanked away yet again when Danny spoke. 

“What are you doing?” The redhead asked, an unfamiliar venom in her voice.

Laura looked at Danny, taken aback by her tone. “Danny, jeez, I invited her to have some if she wanted,”

“You invited her?” Danny asked, surprised. 

Carmilla looked up. “Birthday girl’s right,” She said, looking down again as she shoveled chicken and broccoli onto her plate. “figured I’d take her up on her offer. Who’s a broke college student to deny free food?”

“You can come sit, if you want,” Laura offered.

“No, Clifford doesn’t seem to enjoy my presence and I can’t say that I’m all that enchanted by her’s,” She said, her voice bored as she grabbed the last crab rangoon. “See you, cupcake,”

“You invited her? I thought you didn’t like her,” Danny said once Carmilla was out of earshot, looking back at Laura. 

“She was actually kind of nice this morning,” Laura said, “I figured maybe we were making progress,” She paused for a moment and glanced at Danny, her brow furrowing as she saw the look of intense dislike on the redheads face. “let’s just finish the movie,” she said, leaning back into he cushions.

\----

Later on that night, Laura headed up to her room to go to sleep after thanking everyone a dozen times over. She wasn’t surprised to find her room empty and went about getting ready for bed, but paused when she noticed little flashes of white whizzing by the window. She finished putting her gifts away, setting the book and the box set on her bookshelf, and draping the belt over her chair after hanging her necklace on the little peg that stuck out of the shelf on her wall, and went over to the window, smiling widely when she saw that it was snow. They hadn’t had much snow in the last couple years, and she’d been missing it a lot. She opened the window a crack to catch a few snowflakes on her hand, but a sudden gust of wind forced the window open, spraying Laura in snow. She stumbled back, yelping in surprise. 

When she got her bearings again, and brushed her hair out of her eyes, she noticed that snow hadn’t been the only thing to fly in through the window. On the floor, amidst the melting snowflakes, sat two black crow feathers. That uneasy feeling she’d had in the coffee shop came back tenfold as she bent over to pick the feathers up. She held them at arms’ length, and tossed them back out the window before slamming it shut. 

“Eugh,” She shuddered, hurrying over to her bed and burrowing under the covers. She pulled the cuffs of her flannel over her hands and snuggle against her pillow, willing away the knot in her gut. It didn’t work. She did eventually fall asleep though, her nose pressed against the collar of her flannel that still faintly smelled like wood smoke and spruce.

\----

The next morning, Carmilla rolled over onto her back when she heard the bedroom door close as Laura left for class. She sat up and glanced at the door, and then turned away, sighing as she raked a hand through her hair. She shouldn’t have done that yesterday. She shouldn’t have given her the card, shouldn’t have gone down to get dinner. Laura needed to stay far away from her, from Maman. Carmilla knew that Maman would get her, eventually, but she could at least try harder to keep her out of harm’s way a little longer. 

And one way to get Laura away from her was to piss her off. 

Carmilla’s eyes settled on Laura’s yellow pillow, and a smirk graced her features. She slid out from under the covers and snatched Laura’s yellow pillow from her bed, grabbed a few cookies from Laura’s stash for good measure, and settled back into bed. She turned onto her side after finishing the last cookie, burying her face in Laura’s pillow. She tried to ignore the fact that Laura’s pillow smelled like cinnamon with a faint edge of leather as she drifted off to sleep.

Carmilla was already asleep when a crow landed on the windowsill.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thanks for reading! make sure to check out my 'The Dark is Rising Carmilla AU' page on my tumblr for updates and related songs/pictures :)


	6. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys, sorry for the update being a day late, I wasn't feeling good last night so I hit the hay instead of finishing the chapter. This chapter is about 4.5k words, so hopefully that makes up for it :)
> 
> Thank you so much for all the comments so far, and please feel free to comment in the future, I love talking to all of you, and reading your comments always makes me excited to write more :)
> 
> apologies for any mistakes, I'm still not feeling great, so I might have missed some here and there. 
> 
> thank you so much for reading and I hope you enjoy!! Make sure to look at the TDIRAU page on my tumblr after reading for related pictures and songs!

Three days after her birthday, Laura walked out of the apartment, locking the door behind her. She had some time to kill, and with finals coming up, she wanted to get started on her Christmas shopping now, so she pulled her jacket tighter around herself and headed down the path that led off campus. The sky was overcast, as it had been since her birthday, but the snow had stopped the night before, and everything was covered in a dusting of white. As creepy as Silas was, it was beautiful, dusted in sparkling snow. Although, some patches, as well as some of the icicles looked vaguely....green. She shook her head, figuring the Alchemy department was probably to blame. 

Laura strode under the grand gate that marked the entrance to the university, proudly proclaiming ‘Et Devorabit Omnia’, and continued down the street to the bookshop. The street was beautifully decorated in the lights and wreathes that she’d seen the store owners putting up when her and the gang had come by on her birthday, but everything looked far more festive now that everything was dusted in snow, and bedecked in tiny little icicles. All of that slipped Laura’s mind when the hair on the back of her neck stood on end as she heard cawing overhead. She looked up, watching a few crows circle over head, and then turned around to find the trees behind her utterly infested with crows. Hundreds of beady little eyes peered down at her, beaks clicking and snapping as they opened to caw and squawk, wings flapping and feathers rustling in the wind. 

Goosebumps rose up Laura’s arms and she turned, hurrying down the street to the bookstore. She passed Old Traveler’s Coffee, and turned onto the next block, her hands shoved deep into the pockets of her jean jacket to keep them warm. After passing a diner and a drug store, she ducked into the bookstore, finally taking a deep breath once the door closed behind her. The woman behind the counter looked up from her book and gave her a weird look.

“Cold,” Laura blurted, “it’s just, um, cold outside,” 

The woman behind the counter raised an eyebrow and nodded, her dark curly hair falling over her shoulders as she turned back to her book. Laura walked past her and made her way to the shelf that housed the classics. The shop was brightly lit, the walls lined with pine bookshelves stained a rich honey color, the floors wide planks of matching wood with old, square nails tacking them down. Classical music played quietly in the background along with the ticking of an antique clock. 

Laura scanned the shelves in search of the new Tolkien translation of Beowulf that Danny had been so excited about but hadn’t gotten around to getting, her hand fiddling with the magnifying glass necklace Danny had given her for her birthday. She bit her lip a little, her mind wandering back to dinner on her birthday. She’d never heard venom in Danny’s voice like when she’d spoken to Carmilla, not even with Kirsch when they’d first met. Her and Carmilla didn’t get along, that was plain as day, and Laura still wasn’t totally sure if she was just tolerating Carmilla, or if she was actually sort of getting along with her at this point, but still, Danny’s tone had felt unwarranted. There had been more than enough food for all of them. She sighed in slight frustration when she landed on the likely reason why Danny had been so upset. Danny knew from around campus that Carmilla had a less than favorable reputation, and she didn’t like that Laura had to room with her. Danny had always been protective of her, and at first, Laura had appreciated it. It’d been kind of nice to have someone watching her back, especially when she’d first come to Silas, but after a while, it’d started frustrating Laura. It felt like having another dad, and having the one she did was more than enough. Her father had sent her to college with a can of bear spray for every day of the week, six cans of mace, and baseball bat, and eleven years of Krav Maga training. She loved her dad dearly but half the reason why she’d decided to room at school was so that she could get out of his protective bubble, not jump headfirst into somebody else’s.

Danny had backed off around the start of the second semester of Laura’s freshman year. Laura hadn’t gotten up to much her first year, and wasn’t much of a partier, so there really wasn’t a reason for Danny to worry. (Though she always did worry whenever Laura went to the library.) But now that she was rooming with Carmilla, Danny had started going back to the way she’d been at the beginning of Laura’s freshman year. Asking her to thump on the wall if anything felt remotely off. Apparently not even wanting Carmilla in the same room as her more than she had to be. 

She sighed, taking the book she was looking for off the shelf. She’d asked around campus about Carmilla, and had come up with about what Danny had. Nobody really knew anything about her--although some confirmed that she was a philosophy major--and most were wary of her. But Carmilla had never done anything to her except annoy her. The blood in the milk container was a bit much, but still. Carmilla hadn't actually done anything to hurt her, or threaten her, for that matter. Laura shook herself from her train of thought and continued wandering around the shop in search of anything else one of her roommates might like. She eventually stopped in front of a display beside the counter that housed row upon row of little clay necklaces. 

“They’re made by a local artist,” the woman behind the counter said, glancing up from her book. 

“What?” Laura said, tearing her eyes away from the display. 

“They’re made by a local artist,” She repeated.

“How much?” Laura asked, looking back to the display. She reached forward and picked up one from the third shelf. It was made of brown clay, and on it was etched a single swirl that covered the entire front of the pendant. If she wasn’t mistaken, it was the same mathematical swirl LaFontaine had been so excited about a few days earlier. 

“Ten euro,” 

“I’ll take it,” Laura said, placing the necklace and the book on the counter. 

\----

A little over a half hour later, Carmilla glanced up from lacing her boots to find Laura walking in through the door, cheeks red from the cold and a paper bag in hand. 

Laura looked over at her, and an eyebrow went up. “Where are you going so late?” She asked, setting down her bag and unwinding her scarf from her neck.

“Seminar,” Carmilla drawled, a soft thud sounding around the room as Carmilla put her foot down. 

“This late at night?” Laura asked skeptically. “It’s almost eight,”

“Yeah, this late at night,” She said pulling on her leather jacket. 

“Where do you go at night?” Laura asked rolling her eyes when she found Carmilla’s rucksack on her desk chair. She huffed and went to pick it up, but couldn't. “And seriously what do you have in here? This weighs like four hundred pounds. I’ve successfully flipped _Kirsch_ and I can’t pick this up,”

“I told you, I’m going to a seminar,” Carmilla said, reaching around Laura and slinging the rucksack onto her shoulder, much to Laura’s disbelief. “And I have my stuff in here,” She looked Laura over with a quirked eyebrow, eyes lingering here and there as a smirk crept across her face. “And _you_ flipped brotein shake? I’d pay to see that,” She murmured, heading towards the door. “I’ll be back tomorrow sometime. Try not to get all sweaty and delirious before I get back,”

Laura just gaped at her leather clad back as she walked out the door, eyes wide. “What the what...?” She said to herself, all kinds of confused about both Carmilla’s apparent super human strength, and the blush creeping up her own neck. She shook her head and went back to the brown paper bag on her bed, and took the necklace out, turning the little package over in her hand. She studied the little box it was wrapped in, her brow furrowing when she noticed seven intricate swirls moving amongst the speckles in the paper. Laura rubbed her eyes, figuring she was just tired, but when her eyes refocused, the pattern was still moving. She shook her head and shoved the box into her hoodie pocket, swallowing the lump in her throat as she left the room. 

“Hey L,” LaF said, looking up from their laptop as they sat at the counter.

“Hey,” Laura sighed, smiling a little as she passed them on the way to the fridge. She had half a sandwich leftover from lunch that she’d been looking forward to all afternoon, and she was starving after walking back from town.

“You okay?” LaF asked.

“Yeah, just tired. I went into town to do some christmas shopping...” She trailed off, stepping back from the fridge and staring at the wadded up wrapper in her hand. “She ate my sandwich,” She said incredulously. She growled something under her breath and chucked the wrapper in the garbage, and then dug in the cabinet for a cup of noodles. 

LaFontaine chuckled under their breath, and went back to typing on their laptop.

“I have a question,” Laura said, after adding water to the cup and putting it in the microwave. She leaned back against the counter, playing with the fork in her hands. 

“Shoot,” laF said, not looking up.

“What would give someone ridiculous strength?” Laura asked, eyes thoughtful.

At this, LaFontaine looked up. “Uh...I mean, adrenaline could do that. There’s been cases of people lifting extremely heavy loads if their adrenaline was pumped up enough. Lifting cars off of people, stuff like that,” Laura was quiet, chewing her lip. “Why?” They asked.

“I just watched Carmilla pick up her rucksack. The thing weighs like four hundred pounds,” She said, looking back up at the redhead. “I couldn’t pick it up, and I’ve flipped Kirsch,” The microwave beeped and Laura pulled her soup out, and took a seat beside LaFontaine. 

LaFontaine snorted at the memory but their face turned serious once more after a moment. “So you’re saying Carmilla picked up a nearly four hundred pound rucksack like it was nothing?”

“Mhmm,” Laura hummed around a mouthful of noodles. “I tried to pick it up and couldn’t get it to budge, and then she just reached around me and slung it on her back like it weighed five pounds,”

“Huh,” LaFontaine said thoughtfully. “And she didn’t seem hyped up or scared or anything?”

“Nope. Just normal broody, disaffected Carmilla,”

“Well we can rule out adrenaline then,” LaFontaine said, closing their laptop and turning to fully face Laura now. They looked up a second later though, hearing Perry call them from upstairs. They gave Laura an apologetic look.

“Go,” Laura smiled, shooing them away with her fork. 

“I’ll look into it more,” They called over their shoulder as they made for the stairs, “night, Frosh,”

“Night, LaF,” Laura called back, smiling to herself as she turned back to her soup. She chuckled to herself. LaF was so incredibly whipped, but it was so adorable. She finished off her soup and tossed the cup in the garbage, and then headed upstairs, deciding to just go to sleep. She’d spent the last two nights up until around three in the morning writing various papers, so she figured she’d earned this one night to go to sleep early. 

Laura closed her bedroom door behind her and sighed, stripping her hoodie and jeans off, and pulled on a pair of sweatpants before crawling into bed. She paused for a moment, halfway under the covers, and then got up again, retrieving the little box from her hoodie pocket, and placed it in the shelf at her head. She snuggled down into her covers finally, her mind churning about her conversation with LaF. 

\----

The next afternoon, Laura stepped out into the hallway near the entrance of the Walter Freeman building, having just come from her anthropology class. She made her way down the hall to go outside, but her pace slowed when she realized that she was the only one in the hallway aside from a few guys at the other end, all laughing and taking loudly. Her brow furrowed, and she began walking again, a knot forming in her stomach.

“Hey baby!” One of the guys called gleefully, much to the amusement of his friends. 

Laura picked up the pace, the knot in her stomach tightening. 

“Come on, don’t be shy,” Another said, their steps quickening. 

Laura reached for her back pocket, but her heart sank when she found it to be empty. She’d left her mace at home. She stepped up the pace again, her heart thudding uncomfortably fast against her ribs. 

“Come on, we just want to invite you to a party tonight,” One grinned, suddenly right behind her. 

Laura shrieked and whirled around, looking up at the three of them. They were all tall with broad shoulders, staring down at her with unsettling eyes. “Not interested,” Laura snapped. 

“Aw, that doesn’t matter,” One grinned, leering at her. Had his eyes always been completely black?

“Just give us the signs,” Another hissed.

“What?” Laura asked, confused.

“Give us the signs,” Said the third, his eyes black as well. “Give us the signs, Laura, give us the signs you stole,”

“What signs!?” Laura demanded again, “I have no idea what you’re talking about! and how do you know my name??”

“ _Give us the signs, Laura_ ,” The first one growled, the three of them backing her up against the wall. Laura heard loud clicking sounds on either side of her, and shrieked when she saw that all of their hands had morphed into long black claws, and black scaly skin like a crow’s foot. The two men flanking the one in the middle leaned against the wall, their claws clicking loudly against the brick.

Laura acted on instinct, and jabbed the one in front of her in the throat, making a break for the door, but cried out in pain as a claw dragged across her right shoulder, ripping her shirt and drawing blood. She faltered, but forced herself to keep running, making a mad dash for the door at the end of the hall. She briefly thanked every god known to man for the fact that she didn’t have much to carry. Behind her quick footsteps reverberated around the empty hallway. 

“Give us the signs!”

“Laura give us the signs!!”

“GIVE THEM TO US NOW!!”

Laura slammed herself against the door, pushing it open and didn’t stop as she bolted out of the building, running as fast as she could. Their chorus of demands became a cacophony of cawing and squawking and rustling feathers and flapping wings as they gained on Laura as she raced down the sidewalk. Laura chanced a glance behind her, but it was the wrong idea. She hit a patch of ice and her ankle twisted, sending her into the snow in a heap. She curled into a ball in the snow, her arms over her head, expecting to be dive-bombed any second, but nothing came. The cawing and the flapping grew fainter, and she chanced raising her head a little to see the crows flying away in the distance. There were suddenly people all around as usual, standing in groups and walking to class, and a few gave her a weird look as she lay there in a heap in the snow. 

Laura stuttered something about slipping on the ice to the few onlookers, and slowly picked herself up off the ground, wincing as her ankle twinged. She gingerly tested it out, and mercifully found she was able to put weight on it. She shivered, brushing snow off of herself, and gasped as some slid down her back under her shirt. Her hands were a little scraped up, but she couldn’t tell the state of her shoulder yet. It didn’t feel deep, at least. There was no way she was going to class looking like this. She leaned over and carefully picked up hr bag, and started towards the apartment, cradling the arm she’d landed on and weaving through scattered students.

Laura stepped through the door to the apartment a little while later, wincing a little. Danny was standing in the kitchen, and looked up, looking confused. 

“Laura, don’t you have cla--” her words died in her throat when she saw the blood staining Laura’s shirt and the grimace on her face. “Shit, Laura, what the fuck happened?” She asked, rushing over to Laura with alarm written all over her face. 

“A few guys chased me and I tripped,” Laura shrugged a little, conveniently leaving out the part where the three guys had turned into a swarm of crows. 

“Why didn’t you call me??” Danny demanded, gripping Laura’s good shoulder firmly. 

“I was being chased, Danny, I didn’t have time,” Laura said with a bit of a huff. She went to move around Danny, but Danny stopped her again. 

“I could have come and walked you home,” Danny said. “in case they came back,”

Laura sighed. “You know I can take care of myself,” 

Danny heaved a breath, “Yes but you’re hurt, let me get you cleaned up--”

“Danny, I’m cold and I just want to take a hot shower,” Laura said, moving past the redhead. “I can handle it, it’s nothing big,”

“Laura, come on, you probably can’t even reach the whole cut, just let me help,”

Laura ran a hand through her hair, her face scrunching up momentarily. “I appreciate the concern, Danny, really I do, but I can take care of it myself. I’m a big girl,” She turned and gave the redhead a meaningful look. “I just want to take a shower and lay down for a bit, okay?”

Danny finally relented, her change in posture making her look smaller as she nodded a bit. “Alright. Just...just let me know if you need anything,”

Laura nodded and headed upstairs to her room to get a change of clothes and a towel. LaFontaine was leaving the room they shared with Perry as Laura stepped onto the landing, and their eyes widened. 

“Jesus, L, what happened?” They asked, concerned. 

“I got chased by a couple gym sharks and slid on some ice,” Laura said with a slight grumble as she walked down the hall to her room, a slight limp to her gait. 

“Yeesh,” They said, eyebrows raising. “Let me know if you need any help, yeah?” LaFontaine had a way of assuring everyone that they were there if they were ever needed, but didn’t push when it came to anything, really. Laura appreciated that about them greatly. 

Laura smiled a little at them, noting the concern in their eyes. “Thanks, LaF,” she said, and then turned into her bedroom. 

Laura sighed and ran a hand through her hair as she placed her bag on her bed, and headed to the wardrobe where her and Carmilla kept their clothes. She pulled out an olive green tank top and a pair of red plaid sweatpants, and grabbed a towel before walking down the hall to the second full bathroom. In an apartment with a capacity of seven, two were needed. 

The little human placed her things on the small table beside the toilet, and gingerly began undressing herself, careful of the cut on her shoulder. She chucked her ruined shirt in the garbage, thanking her past self for deciding not to wear her favorite Buffy shirt that day, and grimaced as she unhooked her bra and pulled it off. Still in her jeans and socks, Laura inspected herself in the mirror over the sink. The cut on her shoulder wasn’t deep, as she’d suspected, but it was several inches long, running from her collar bone to just over her shoulder and down about an inch and a half onto her shoulder blade. Another shorter, shallower cut ran adjacent to it on the right side towards the end of her shoulder. Thankfully neither cut looked like it would need stitches, but they’d probably scar. 

Laura glanced at the open curtains that hung around the window, and quickly closed them before taking her jeans and underwear off. “Really?” She said to nobody in particular, wadding up toilet paper to pick the clump of dark hair--that no doubt belonged to Carmilla--out of the drain. She chucked it in the trash, and turned the water on and stepped under the spray, hissing as the hot water made contact with the cut on her shoulder and the scrapes on her palms. The scrapes were nothing major, thankfully. They’d just sting at the most for a few days. 

Her gut didn’t unclench as she went through the motions of washing herself, wincing and gasping as the soap stung her injuries. She had no idea what had just happened. The halls were always packed between classes, so why had nobody been in sight except for the freaky guys that had chased her? And since when did frat boys explode into a swarm of crows? And why were these flocks of crows so fixated on her? Yes, this was Silas. Homecoming at Silas included a goat sacrifice, and green snow was a common occurrence, and the alchemy club--a science that hadn’t been practiced in several hundred years, to the best of Laura’s knowledge--was responsible for the giant six foot mushrooms that roamed the campus for a week last October, and she was pretty sure something was up with the swim team, but frat boys growing three inch black claws and then bursting into a flock of crows seemed to be pushing it. 

She rolled her eyes at herself a moment later. She sounded like Perry. She’d watched six foot mushrooms amble around campus, and she thought this was strange? Maybe her encounter wasn't as weird as she initially thought. One thing was keeping her stomach tied in an uncomfortable knot, though. What the hell were these signs they kept demanding from her? And why were they demanding them from her? She knew absolutely nothing about these ‘signs’, and yet, they were convinced that she was somehow in possession of them. 

Laura groaned and let her head softly thump against the shower wall. She was giving herself a headache. Or had she already had the headache? She didn’t know. She finished rinsing off and shut the water off, and grabbed her towel from the hook and began to dry off. Once she was dry, she got half dressed before digging through the cupboard that was mounted on the wall for the roll of gauze and the silk tape that Perry always stocked the cupboard with. She dabbed some disinfectant ointment onto the cuts, and then gingerly placed a strip of gauze over each, and taped them down. She flexed her shoulder a little, and then pulled her tank top on, satisfied with her handiwork. She put her clothes in the hamper, but was careful to take out the little box that held LaFontaine’s necklace, and stuffed it in her pocket as she walked out of the room.

\----

Carmilla stepped into the bedroom, and the scent of blood and disinfectant ointment hit her nose. She looked to Laura, who was sitting on her bed with a textbook in her lap, and a sizable bandage on her shoulder. 

“What the frilly hell happened to you?” Carmilla asked with a raised eyebrow. 

Laura looked up. “I tripped on some ice,” She said, “Some guys chased me out of the Walter Freeman building,”

“Did they now?” Carmilla said, an eyebrow raised skeptically as she set her rucksack down with a thunk next to the pile of clothes that sat behind her headboard. She pulled out several books and slid them onto her bookshelf. Laura’s eyebrows scrunched together. Carmilla’s rucksack looked even heavier than it did the night before. 

“Yeah, it was...really weird,” Laura said, rubbing her eyes. Her headache had gotten a bit worse since her shower, and she was feeling decidedly out of it. “And thanks for eating my sandwich,” She grumbled, her voice laced with sarcasm.

Carmilla smirked. “Oh no problem cutie, it was delicious,” When Laura didn’t answer with an equally smart quip, Carmilla turned and regarded her for a moment, her insides twisting as she watched the little human rub her eyes and stifle a yawn. She knew exactly what had happened. She knew that overall look of fatigue. She turned and puled her jacket off, throwing it onto the bed, and paused as she reached for her rucksack to take out another book. She hesitated for a moment, chewing on the inside of her cheek as she jammed her hands into her pockets, turning around again. “I...I can get you something to help,” She said finally.

Laura looked up, her eyes narrowed a bit. “What do you mean?” She asked. 

Carmilla sighed. “Frankly, cupcake, you look like crap,”

Laura opened her mouth to protest, looking rather offended, but Carmilla cut her off.

“Look, cutie, you’re tired and you obviously got a bit of a headache going on there,” Carmilla said, looking vaguely uncomfortable with talking so much. “and I can tell that you’re not absorbing a word that’s written on that page. It’ll clear your head, and it’ll get rid of your headache, okay? Just give me a couple days to get it,”

“Okay, Laura said, albeit warily. “thanks,”

“Don’t mention it, cupcake,” Carmilla said, adopting that disaffected tone once more as she turned and left the room, presumably to get something to eat. 

Once Carmilla was out of the room, Laura got up and checked the windows, making sure the locks were securely in place, and then drew the curtains closed. Her heart thudded in her chest a little harder than normal, and the knot in her stomach didn’t loosen. She looked around the room with a furrowed brow, feeling far too exposed for her liking. 

\----

In the middle of the night, Laura woke up to find Carmilla siting across the room from her on her bed, nose buried in a book, with a few candles flickering beside her on her headboard. 

“What are you doing here?” Laura mumbled, rubbing her eyes. 

“Always so inquisitive,” Carmilla drawled, not looking up from her book.

“I’m a journalism major,” Laura said, her voice thick with sleep. 

“So you’ve said,” Carmilla answered, turning a page. “go back to sleep,”

“You didn’t answer my question,” Laura pointed out.

“I didn’t feel like going out.” Carmilla deadpanned. “Go back to sleep,”

Laura studied the woman sitting across from her with tired eyes. Carmilla was dressed in a pair of black sweatpants and a faded band shirt, her hair rumpled. The candle flames bathed the right side of her face in flickering, warm light, and her face was lacking her signature smirk. She reached for the travel mug that sat beside one of the taller candles and took a long pull from it, sighing as she set it down again. Laura wasn’t blind, she had always plainly seen that Carmilla was absolutely stunning, but there was something about her just sitting there, reading and bathed in candlelight that was just...beautiful. And very...Carmilla. A tiny smile tugged at Laura’s lips, and she rolled over, wincing a little as she leaned on her bad shoulder. 

She tried to ignore the fact that she felt just a little bit safer there with Carmilla in the room as she drifted back to sleep.


	7. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the delayed update guys, I had a really, really hard time with this chapter. I'm still not sure if I'm completely happy with it, but if I read it over one more time, my eyes are going to start bleeding. I hope it's okay, haha.
> 
> Thank you so much for reading, and every comment, kudo, and view means so much :)
> 
> I hope you guys enjoy!

Carmilla stepped out of the apartment saturday evening, keys in hand, and a black crow feather tucked into her jacket pocket. She’d woken up to it laying beside her--well, Laura’s--pillow. Maman was summoning her. Her gut twisted as her fingers clenched around the feather, but she walked on, heading towards the place she’d last met her. Her booted feet crunched the snow that covered the ground--a thin sheen of ice had formed over the dusting of white as darkness had fallen--and cracks spidered around her footprints as she walked across the quad. A few crows passed overhead, and Carmilla picked up the pace. Maman was impatient tonight. Her expression was carefully constructed and absent of emotion as she watched the crows fly into the trees, and out emerged the rider a moment or two later, dressed in black crow feathers and leather as always, and atop her white horse she sat. 

“Evening, Maman,” Carmilla greeted in an steady voice as she approached the woman on the horse. The horse was restless, its hooves pawing at the ground, flicking its head and tail back and forth. Carmilla stood up straight, her hands out of her pockets and hanging at her sides now.

The rider sneered. “I recall telling you to behave, Mircalla,” She said, yanking harshly at the reigns to get her horse to stop fidgeting. “She has sensed one of the signs, and you didn’t _notice._ I had to send my golems after her, Mircalla. Your job is not so difficult that you should need help,” She reached down, slowly lifting Carmilla’s chin with her finger. “Well? What do you have to say for yourself? Or do you need help speaking as well?”

Carmilla suppressed a wince. “I have noticed,” She said, trying hard to not let her voice waver as she met icy grey eyes. “she came back a few days ago with a little box from a book shop, I am certain it contains the sign. She doesn’t let it out of her sight, but she doesn’t know why. She doesn’t know that it contains a sign. She doesn’t even know what the signs are, yet. I’ve been waiting until she’s distracted to snatch it,”

“She desires _women_ , darling,” The rider said, “I had expected a woman as pretty as yourself to have her wrapped around your little finger by now,” Maman ran a gloved hand through Carmilla’s hair, pushing it away from deep brown eyes.

Carmilla swallowed uncomfortably. “She had proven...difficult to woo,”

“Or you haven’t made an attempt,” The rider hissed.

“I am,” Carmilla said quickly, “She’s warming up to me, I think...It’s just taking longer than expected,”

The rider regarded her for a moment before speaking. “Need I remind you that this school is not our domain?” She asked, trailing her fingers down Carmilla’s cheek an down to her chin again, jerking Carmilla’s chin up ever so slightly before withdrawing her hand. “My influence is how you got into that room, but Cochorane and her blasted Old Ones have sensed her too, and they will no doubt speak to her before long. Get that sign from her before they do,” She said, “or I will have to take action myself,” 

“Yes, mother,” Carmilla nodded, dropping her gaze. 

The rider reached down and stroked a gloved finger down Carmilla’s left cheek once more, and back up, tucking Carmilla’s hair behind her ear. “Go on, darling,” She said, withdrawing her hand and turning her horse towards the trees once again. “we can’t have your housemates suspecting anything, now can we?”

“Of course not, mother,” 

The rider grinned, her grey eyes flashing. “Good girl,” She said, “off you go,” 

\----

“What is the old windbag griping about now?” Mattie called with a huff from the kitchen as Theo entered the flat. He’d been downstairs in the shop, taking a call. 

“He wanted to know why we haven’t all talked to Laura yet,” He said, dropping his keys by the door and kicking off his shoes. He entered the kitchen and put the tea kettle on. Him and Mattie shared a little two bedroom flat above the coffee house, and it was small, but comfortable. Worn wood floors ran throughout the flat, and the walls were painted in rich, dark greens and browns. Antiques and tapestries dotted the walls much like they did in the coffee house, and a wood fireplace was set in the wall of the living room, and beside it sat an old upright piano. A brown leather couch and love seat set created a half circle around the fireplace, and in between them sat an antique table with a chess board made of heartwoods inlaid in it, and ivory chess pieces sat atop it. 

Mattie rolled her eyes. “He’s only gotten more impatient since the fourteenth century,” She drawled, stirring the soup in the pot that sat before her on the stove. 

“Yes, well, you know how he is,” Theo sighed, filling the tea kettle with water and reaching around Mattie to put it on the stove behind the soup. “He said that Nellie has a plan, but he doesn’t think it’s moving fast enough. I told him that we should listen to Nellie, and he seemed to back off a bit, but not without some grumbling. Though I don’t think he’ll go and try and seek Laura out himself,”

Mattie nodded. “Good. I trust Nellie is reigning him in also?” She asked, setting the wooden spoon down and leaning against the counter.

Theo nodded. “She always does,”

Mattie nodded again, satisfied with his answer. “When does she intend to approach Laura, then?”

“I’m not sure yet,” He said, “though I expect we’ll be talking about it soon enough,” He took the kettle from the stove and poured the water into two mugs, and handed one to Mattie. 

“I’m loathed to say it, but Vordenberg may have a point,” Mattie sighed, gazing into her tea. “the Dark is getting stronger,”

“I know,” Theo said, after taking a sip of his own. “I can feel it too. We should speak to them tonight, get our plan straight,”

“I agree,” Mattie said.

“I’ll call Nellie,” Theo sighed, setting down his mug and taking his phone out of his pocket once more as he left the room.

\-----

Carmilla made her way across to the other side of campus once she knew Maman had left, swallowing tears that threatened to fall. She pulled her leather jacket around herself tighter, hissing slightly after a particularly hard gust of wind blew it open. The bare branches of the surrounding forests collided with each other as the wind blew through them, filling the air with ominous clacking and slapping noises. Carmilla ignored it, though, and swiped angrily at the few tears that had slipped out without her permission. She had somewhere to be, someone to meet, and judging by the time on her phone, it was getting late. She didn’t have time for tears. She cursed under her breath in German, and picked up the pace until she was was a silent blur gliding over the snow. She slowed down as she passed the Glee Club house, ignoring the incessant chorus of voices that constantly sounded from it, at all hours of the day and night, every day, and continued on at a normal pace, heading towards the small courtyard that sat behind the Glee Club house. Nobody ever used it _because_ it was behind the Glee Club house. The incessant droning of voices often gave people headaches, and had a vaguely siren-like effect on certain members of the student body. Probably because there was an actual siren in the club. 

Carmilla strode through the break in the wall that surrounded the little courtyard, and waited just outside of the glow thrown from the single lamppost that stood in the middle. 

“Took you long enough,” Came a woman’s voice from across the courtyard. 

Carmilla rolled her eyes. “Forgive me,” She deadpanned. “I had business elsewhere to attend to first,”

“Do you have it?” Elsie asked, stepping into the light.

“Depends,” Carmilla answered. “do you?”

“Quit being so cryptic, Karnstein,” Elsie sighed. “do you have it or not?”

“Like you’re little miss innocent,” Carmilla drawled. “but yes, I have it,” She let her backpack slide off her shoulders.

“Good,” Elsie said, perking up a little. 

Carmilla unzipped her backpack and pulled out two fat blood bags. “O-neg, like you asked,” She said, holding them out. 

“Oh no no no,” Elsie said, shaking her head. 

“What?” Carmilla said, raising an eyebrow.

“I asked for three,” Elsie said. “do you want the charm or not?”

Carmilla scowled and pulled out the third.

“Thank you,” Elsie said, now satisfied. She dropped two into her own bag, and opened the cap on the third, taking a whiff. “Mmm...good liver functions, never had a drop of alcohol,” Elsie wasn’t old for their kind by any means, actually being younger than Carmilla, but she had certain...talents. “All from the same specimen?”

Carmilla nodded. “So? The charm?” She prompted, impatient. She didn’t like being out in the open like this, and she wanted the charm in her possession as soon as possible. 

Elsie reached into her coat pocket and produced a dried bat wing and turkey feather that were both tied to several pieces of brown leather cord, which were adorned with red bone, and sterling silver beads. “Why do you need it anyway?” The younger vampire asked, handing it over to Carmilla.

“Personal reasons,” Carmilla said, examining the charm as she turned it over in her hands.

“‘Personal reasons,’” Elsie echoed, a hint of amusement in her voice. “don’t go and get yourself killed, Karnstein,”

“You know me better than that,” Carmilla smirked as she began to turn and walk away, stowing the charm away in her pocket. “thanks for the help. See you around, shortstack,” 

“You have all of two inches on me!” Elsie called, only receiving a laugh in return from Carmilla.

Carmilla kept walking, her hands clenched tightly, but not too tight, around the charm. She couldn’t risk breaking it, not after all of that. She hoped it would work. Swallowing the lump in her throat, she walked on towards the apartment. 

\----

Laura looked up from her Lit reading as the door opened, banging quietly against the wall. In walked Carmilla, muttering harshly under her breath in German, looking windblown and much more tired and grumpy than usual. Laura raised an eyebrow, watching Carmilla trudge over to her bed and then drop onto it. “Evening,” She said, resting her book on her lap.

Carmilla looked over, seemingly scrutinizing the little human for a moment. “You look like a walking Warner Brothers advert,” She mumbled, albeit halfheartedly. 

Laura looked down at her Hufflepuff sweatpants and scowled slightly. “And your point is?”

Carmilla just grunted in reply, rolling over. 

Laura set her book aside and watched her for a few minutes. She didn’t seem herself. Laura briefly wondered if she’d actually ever seen Carmilla be herself, but whatever it was, she was pretty sure it wasn’t this. And, oddly enough, she found that she didn’t like seeing Carmilla like this, if the twisting of her gut was any indication. “You okay?” She asked, a bit hesitantly. 

“Fine.” Carmilla answered shortly.

“Really?” Laura asked, “Because I can _feel _you brooding from here,”__

__Carmilla rolled onto her back and looked at Laura, studying her. Laura chewed on her lip a little, noticing that Carmilla’s eyes were red rimmed. She raised an eyebrow, prompting her, and Carmilla sighed, letting her hands fall on either side of her. “I had some words with my mother,” She relented, “happy?”_ _

__“You two don’t get along?”_ _

__Carmilla barked out a bitter laugh. “You could say that,” She said, her eyes flicking to the ceiling. She looked over at Laura again and a moment, and was surprised to see something akin to compassion in her eyes._ _

__“What happened?” Laura asked._ _

__Carmilla was quiet, surprised by the gentle tone of Laura’s voice. “I haven’t been doing what she wants me to do, the way she wants me to do it,” She sighed after a few moments hesitation._ _

__“Ah,” Laura said, leaning back. “not living up to expectations?”_ _

__“Something like that,” Carmilla murmured, reaching into her pocket and touching the charm as her eyes drifted to the ceiling once more. The knot in her stomach tightened._ _

__“I know the feeling,”_ _

__Carmilla tore her gaze away from the beat up exposed beams that ran the width of the room, and gave Laura a disbelieving look._ _

__“I’m the only child of a massively over protective father,” Laura deadpanned. “I know he means well, but I couldn’t step out of the house without doing something he didn’t like, or doing something in a way he didn’t like. When I told him I was going to school here, he nearly had an aneurism,”_ _

__Carmilla snorted, but out of genuine amusement. “I knew you were daddy’s little girl,” She teased._ _

__Laura rolled her eyes. “Hardly. I love my dad but we rarely see eye to eye,”_ _

__“Somehow I’m not surprised,” Carmilla murmured, smirking._ _

__Laura laughed a little. “I’m that easy to figure out?”_ _

__Carmilla sat up, shrugging her jacket off. She slipped her hand back into the pocket, pale fingers stroking the feather that hung from the bracelet. “Yes and no,” She said, a hint of a smirk, but softer, pulling at her lips. “I have something for you,” She said, her eyes flicking down to her lap as she withdrew her hand from her jacket pocket._ _

__“You do?” Laura asked, a little confused._ _

__Carmilla nodded. “Remember I said I could get you something to help?”_ _

__“It’s not another card for a twelve year old, is it?” Laura asked warily, but with amusement in her voice._ _

__Camilla scoffed. “ _Please_ ,” She said, rolling her eyes. “like I’d use that joke twice. You offend me,” There was that soft smirk again. She stood up and crossed the room, tentatively sitting on the edge of Laura’s bed. _ _

__Laura smiled a little, watching as Carmilla chewed on her lip a little in a way that looked almost nervous. She didn’t even know Carmilla was _capable_ of being nervous, what with her constant disaffected demeanor. Carmilla reached out and gently took her wrist with warm fingers, and pulled it up, letting go for a moment to slip the charm over Laura’s hand and onto her wrist. _ _

__“It’ll help keep your mind a bit clearer...and it’ll get rid of the headaches,” Carmilla explained, tightening the cords a bit, leaving just enough room so that it would stay on, but it wouldn’t bite into Laura’s skin. “It might help you sleep better too,”_ _

__“Uh...is that a dried bat wing?” Laura asked, looking at it warily while simultaneously trying to ignore the fluttering of her stomach as Carmilla’s fingers ghosted over her wrist._ _

__“Do you want to get rid of the fatigue?” Carmilla asked, raising an eyebrow and sitting back a little. Laura nodded. “Then keep it on,”_ _

__“Uh...thanks,” Laura said, examining it for herself. She ran her fingers over the bat wing, her nose scrunched up ever so slightly in both fascination and mild disgust. She looked back up at Carmilla, and smiled a little. Carmilla surprisingly returned the smile, but it small, and a little tight. “You look tired,” Laura said. Carmilla shrugged. “Why don’t you go to sleep?”_ _

__Carmilla shook her head. “I’ll just make some coffee,” She said, getting up to leave the room._ _

__“Don’t use JP’s espresso,” Laura said picking up her book once again._ _

__“Wouldn’t dream of it, cupcake,” She drawled, flashing a smirk over her shoulder._ _

__\----_ _

__It was nearing three in the morning on that same night when a black pickup truck pulled up in front of Cochorane’s apartment on campus. Theo jumped down from the driver’s side, and Mattie stepped down from the passenger’s side, looking back at the truck with slight distaste._ _

__“I don’t see why we couldn’t have taken my car,” Mattie said._ _

__“Oh yes, because a black Rolls Royce pulling up to a professor’s apartment in the middle of the night would draw no attention,” Theo said, locking the doors to the truck._ _

__“And your behemoth attracts less?” Mattie said incredulously._ _

__“Ah, there you two are,” Vordenberg said, “took you long enough,”_ _

__“Yes, yes, we’re here,” Mattie said, ascending the steps in front of Theo. “Is Nellie here?”_ _

__“Of course, of course,” Vordenberg nodded, “she’s in the drawing room, and tea has been made,”_ _

__“Thank you, Baron,” Mattie nodded._ _

__Theo gripped Vordenberg’s hand briefly, and then followed Mattie into the warmly lit apartment. The flames of the fireplace and the soft lamps cast an amber glow about the room, shadows flickering across deep red walls and richly stained furniture and floors. Before the fireplace sat a stunning bear rug, sleek brown fur seemingly glowing in the light of the fire._ _

__“Evening, Mattie,” Nellie said, standing up, “Theo,” Nellie looked to be in her mid thirties, mousy brown hair piled on top of her head, with a few strands escaping the bun from it being up all day. She was tall, and solidly built, and she wore a maroon button down tucked into a plain black velvet floor length skirt. Soft smile lines and crow’s feet were etched around thin lips and warm, sparkling blue eyes._ _

__“Evening,” They both replied, nodding in greeting. They both shed their coats and took a seat on the black suede high-backed couch that faced the fieldstone and iron wrought fireplace._ _

__“Let’s get down to business, shall we?” Mattie asked, accepting the cup of tea that Nellie offered her._ _

__“Of course,” Nellie said, handing Theo a cup of tea as well, as Vordenberg prepared his own._ _

__“When are we approaching Laura?” Theo asked. “The Dark’s power is gaining, we’re going to have to do it sooner rather than later,”_ _

__“That is already set up,” Nellie said, waving her hand. She reached for a cookie from the tray. “Vordenberg and I have invited Laura and her flatmates to our Christmas party,”_ _

__“Oh, well that’s good,” Mattie said. “does she know yet of her...responsibility?”_ _

__“No,” Nellie said. “We were planning on telling her at the party,”_ _

__“She has already sensed a sign,” Vordenberg said, taking a sip of his tea. “the crows are circling more frequently, do you think it’s wise to wait another three days? Every day is precious, you know,”_ _

__“I do know, Baron,” Nellie said, “but if we do not approach her at just the right time, all will be lost. Three days is an appropriate gamble,”_ _

__“How do you think she’ll take it?” Theo asked, looking at Nellie. “You’ve spent the most time with her,”_ _

__“She’s a curious one,” Nellie said, smiling a little. “even if she’s overwhelmed, she’ll be far too curious to just turn and walk away.” She paused for a moment. “And she’s determined,”_ _

__Vordenberg nodded in agreement._ _

__“That’s good,” Theo said, nodding. “so she’ll be open to it?”_ _

__“Most likely, eventually,” Nellie said after taking a sip of her tea. “I believe I should approach her first, she’s known me the longest,”_ _

__“She’s know me nearly as long,” Vordenberg said._ _

__“Yes, but you also tend to ramble, Baron,” Nellie said, glancing at him with the barest hint of a smile touching her lips._ _

__He grumbled something under his breath, turning his attention back to his tea._ _

__“So it’s settled, then. We will approach her at the party, all of us, but you will speak to her first,” Mattie said, looking satisfied._ _

__“Yes, Tuesday night,” Nellie nodded._ _

__“Sounds like a plan to me,” Theo agreed._ _

__\----_ _

__Carmilla hadn’t returned to the room after going downstairs to make coffee. Though she did, of course, use JP’s espresso. The bookworm had good taste. She had mixed the espresso with a packet of Laura’s cocoa mix and had opted to sit on the roof of the building instead of returning to the room. The room had made her feel like she was suffocating. She needed the cold air, needed the stars, and she needed the quiet. Well, the relative quiet. Silas at night was never completely quiet, but the roof was quieter than being bombarded with the sound of Laura mumbling and shifting in her sleep, her breathing, and sound of five other people breathing out of synch coupled with the little creaking sounds the apartment made when the wind blew especially hard, or the few mice that had taken up residence in the small portion of the attic that was left. She normally didn’t mind the noises, or the sound of Laura breathing and mumbling in her sleep. The few nights she’d stayed in, or came back earlier than normal, she’s actually somewhat enjoyed it. It’d felt safe. But tonight it felt like static and she couldn’t stand it. The faint droning coming fem the Glee Club house and the sound of the wind in the trees and the odd sounds and voices that sounded from the library were much more tolerable. She had sat up there, laying on her back and only sitting up halfway to take sips of her cocoa intermittently as she gazed at the stars._ _

__Carmilla returned to the room in a puff of black smoke around five in the morning. The lights were still out, save for the small string of fairy lights Laura had tacked to the shelf on her wall, and Laura was still fast asleep with her arm hanging off the side of the bed. Carmilla smiled a tiny bit seeing that Laura had left the charm on. It hung from her left wrist, the bat wing and the feather both swinging back and forth ever so slightly as she breathed. It seemed to be working. Or, at least, Carmilla hoped it was._ _


	8. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys, I'm terribly sorry for this update coming so ridiculously late. This chapter was so hard to write, and the last few weeks have been kinda crappy, so that's why. I already have a god chunk of Chapter eight done though, and it's flowing way better than this chapter did, so as long as everything goes according to plan, updates should resume as normal in the Monday/Tuesday window I had going for a while. 
> 
> Anyways, I hope you all enjoy! If you want, let me know what you think--comments always make my day :)
> 
> thanks for reading!
> 
> Also make sure to check my [TDIRAU page](http://batwingsandblackcats.tumblr.com/tagged/TDIRAU) on my tumblr after reading--there's a lot of content going up there today that goes with this chapter :)

The next three days passed rather quietly. Carmilla and Laura had seemed to reach an odd middle ground, a truce of sorts, after Carmilla had given Laura the charm. The charm had been working, easing Laura’s fatigue and helping her think better, much to Carmilla’s relief, as well as Laura’s. Laura had finally been able to finish a few papers now that her head didn’t feel so foggy. 

Carmilla was still her usual self. Wads of hair still resided in the shower drain on a daily basis. Laura’s yellow pillow frequently migrated to Carmilla’s bed. Laura found that her cookies were disappearing at a faster than normal rate. Though, Sunday night Carmilla had come up to their room with two mugs of cocoa, muttering something about making too much by accident before placing it on Laura’s headboard and then promptly sitting on her own bed, burying her nose in an astronomy book and gleaning a slightly bemused expression from Laura, who’s thanks apparently made Carmilla mildly uncomfortable judging by the slight squirming and lack of response other than a slight wave of her hand. Laura had saved her the last oatmeal cookie from Perry’s batch the next night. 

The strangest development that had taken place in the last three days, Laura thought, was that Carmilla had seemingly stopped going out at night. Since Saturday, she’d come home around nine at night, instead of leaving around five and coming home at six in the morning, and as far as Laura could tell, Carmilla stayed in all night. Whenever Laura happened to wake up, Carmilla was sitting on her bed, candles lit, and her nose in a book. Or she was simply sitting by the window, looking up at what Laura assumed was the stars. Like last night. Laura had been up until three finishing a paper, and when she finally crawled into bed, eyelids drooping and sugar high sputtering out, Carmilla had still been perched beside the window, her gaze unwavering as she looked through the glass. 

Seven am on Tuesday rolled around, and Laura’s phone beeped, causing her to wake with a groan. She pawed around on her headboard for her phone and grinned when she read the email. Her first class was cancelled due to a gnome infestation that had apparently sprung up overnight. Laura tossed her phone aside and stretched, and then got up, shuffling out of the room as she pulled a sweatshirt on. Downstairs, she made herself a bowl of cereal and a cup of cocoa, and then headed back upstairs to finish the last couple paragraphs of her journalism paper before sending it off to Professor Cochorane. 

Laura was just settling down on her bed and opening the word document when Carmilla grumbled something from across the room, shifting under her pile of covers. Laura looked up and laughed under her breath as a disgruntled eye peered over the covers at her. “Morning,”

The disgruntled look turned into a glare as Carmilla glanced at the little clock that sat on her headboard. “Seven am? Seriously? I was just getting to sleep,” She huffed.

Laura shrugged. “Sorry, I had a paper to finish. Oh, and all the classes in the Robespierre building are canceled,”

“Why?” Carmilla grunted.

“Gnome infestation,” Laura answered, taking a bite of chokoa crunch. 

Carmilla hummed. “Well...those infuriating little varmints are good for something, apparently,”

Laura snickered, mildly impressed by how articulate Carmilla was after only an hour or two of sleep when the rest of her words only sounded like various grunts and huffs. “Seems so,” She said. “and apparently they bite? Like, really hard? LaF said that they had to deal with some in the labs last year and they still have a scar on their shoulder because one latched on and wouldn’t let go,” Carmilla snorted, causing Laura to grin into her cocoa. She considered getting her brooding roommate to laugh quite the victory. “Oh! I just remembered something,” Laura exclaimed just as Carmilla was burrowing deeper into her blankets, intending to go back to sleep. 

“What is it, cupcake?” she mumbled, sounding a bit disgruntled again. 

“There’s a Christmas party tonight at Cochorane’s apartment,” Laura said, “we all got invited by Vordenberg and Cochorane, and it was before you moved in, but they said everyone who lives here is welcome to go. Would you want to come?” She asked, eyes a bit hopeful. “It starts at seven,”

Carmilla looked over her covers at the little human again, surprised by the look in her eyes. “I’ll think about it, cutie,” She sighed after a moment of consideration, and then rolled over to go back to sleep.

\----

Later on that night, Laura was in her room, picking out what to wear to the party. Carmilla had slunk out of the apartment around five and hadn’t returned since, so Laura figured, with a slight dip to her shoulders, that Carmilla wasn’t going to be joining them. She shook off what she refused to identify as disappointment, and continued pulling things out of their shared closet. She was going to a Christmas party with her friends and was actually not going to think of school and papers and deadlines for a night. And nobody would judge her cookie consumption. What was there to be disappointed about?

Laura finally settled on just a pair of jeans, her olive green tank top, and her red cardigan. The party wasn’t black tie, it would be fine. She took them to the bathroom and got changed, inspecting the cuts on her shoulder before pulling her bra and tank top on. The cuts had closed so she didn’t have to wear the bandages anymore, but they were still a bit red and beginning to scar. Laura sighed and finished getting dressed as she tried not to think about the weird that seemed to be following her much closer than normal over the last few weeks. Gnomes were one thing. This was Silas. Silas was the epitome of weird. But frat boys that burst into a flock of crows? She’d done a few searches online, but hadn’t come up with anything and she hadn't had any time to delve into it any deeper. She shook her head and pushed the thought aside. She just wanted to have a nice night. Once she’d pulled her cardigan on, she tucked the charm away up the sleeve.--nobody but her and Carmilla knew about it because Danny would probably be weirded out and insist that Laura take it off, Perry would be disgusted, and LaFontaine would probably just want to dissect it. 

Back in her room, Laura was tying the laces to her boots when a soft knock on her door frame drew her attention away.

“Hey,” Danny smiled, leaning on the doorframe. 

“Hey,” Laura grinned, pushing her hair out of her eyes and behind her ear as she stood up. 

Danny’s eyes wandered for a moment, and she smiled, meeting Laura’s eyes. “You look really nice,”

“Thanks,” Laura grinned back, not completely noticing the lack of heat crawling up the back of her neck. “so do you,”

“Thanks,” Danny nodded, glancing down at herself briefly. She was wearing a pair of blue jeans and a blue and white plaid flannel, and her hair was down, falling around her shoulders. “You ready to go?” She asked, pushing herself off of the door frame. 

“Yeah,” Laura nodded, grabbing her jacket from her desk chair.

\----

As the six of them strode up the driveway of Cochorane’s apartment, Laura’s eyes wandered, taking in the grand structure. High walls hewn from rough grey stones much like the ones that made up the walls of the Lustig loomed proudly against the black sky, and as they drew closer, Laura noticed that swirling patterns were carved into the wood that made up the porch posts, and were guilded with gold paint. Wind chimes hung from nails lodged in the wood from delicate chains, little bells and tiny polished sheets of metal tinkling in the wind. 

Laura slowed to a stop before the steps, her eyes tracing the patterns as her hand wrapped around the little box in her pocket that still held LaFontaine’s necklace. The patterns matched. Six swirls around a single one in the middle. She chewed her lip, staring intently as her grip tightened slightly, but she was soon snapped out of her train of thought.

“L, you coming?” LaFontaine called from the door.

Laura looked up. “Oh, yeah, sorry,” She said, shaking her head a little and hurrying up the steps. 

Vordenberg ushered the six of them into the apartment and out of the cold, insisting he take their coats, and wishing them a wonderful evening. Laura followed Danny and Kirsch--who were bickering over the ingredients of mince pie--into the main room as Perry asked a vaguely confused Vordenberg where she should put the pie she’d brought. 

Kirsch made a beeline for the table across the room that was littered with trays and platters of pastries, confections, and various forms of alcohol, and grabbed one of the little mince pies. He took a bite and then grinned. “It’s fruit, I told you mince pie is fruit!” He said excitedly, a few crumbs spewing from his mouth. “Cough it up D-Bear,”

Danny rolled her eyes, grumbling as she pulled a five pound note out of her wallet and grudgingly handed it over. Laura snickered and shook her head, reaching for the ladle that sat in an ornately decorated steaming pot of cocoa. She poured a few ladle fulls into a mug from the table and turned around, grinning at Danny and Kirsch as they continued to bicker about something or other. LaFontaine walked over with Perry’s pie in hand and set it on the table.

“Where’s Perry?” Laura asked, leaning against the wall as she took a sip of her cocoa. She glanced down at her mug, noticing it was spiked with, if she wasn’t mistaken, Bailey’s. 

“She went to find a bathroom,” LaF said, setting the pie down on the table. They glanced at Laura’s mug. “Hows the cocoa?”

“Spiked,” Laura said, smiling, “but very good. Bailey’s, I think,”

LaF’s eyes lit up. “Excellent,” They said excitedly, reaching for the ladle. 

“Careful, LaF,” JP warned, walking over with his own mug, “last time you had Bailey’s you burned your eyebrows off,”

LaFontaine waved their hand. “Yeah, yeah, but this time its cut with cocoa, and I’m not in the lab,”

Laura laughed and grabbed a cookie from the tray, and wandered away from the table. She nibbled on the cookie, her eyes roaming over the framed artwork on the walls and the little artifacts that resided in the shadow boxes that were scattered amongst the art. Little instruments made of brass and glass and in some instances what looked like ivory sat upon some of the bookshelves in front of ancient looking books, that, upon closer inspection bore titles that also sat on Carmilla’s shelves. Not that Laura had been looking. She reached out and tapped a small, strange looking instrument and grinned when the piece of it she’d tapped began to spin. The faceted glass sparkled in the light, casting little fragments of light around the shelf. 

“Fancy seeing you here,” An amused voice said, coming from behind Laura.

Laura jumped, barely holding in a yelp as she spun around. “Oh, hi,” She said, recovering as quickly as she could. “Mattie, right?”

Mattie nodded. “Evening, Laura,” She smiled. She was dressed in a black knee length skirt and a white blouse was tucked into her skirt, half sleeves brushing against her forearms. Her hair was down, a gentle curl to the ends, and her lips were stained a dark red. “Enjoying the party?”

Laura nodded, smiling. “Yeah, it’s great,” She said, “it’s nice to get out for a night,”

“I can imagine,” Mattie nodded, taking a sip of her cocktail. “I remember my university days,”

“Oh come on, it couldn’t have been that long ago,” Laura said, laughing a little. 

“You’d be surprised,” Mattie chuckled, taking another drink.

“So how do you know Professor Cochorane?” Laura asked. She tipped her mug back, draining the last of her cocoa. 

“We go way back,” Mattie said, smirking a little. 

Laura raised an eyebrow, not missing the cryptic edge to her smile. “That’s cool,” She said, smiling. “is Theo here too?”

“Yes, he’s over talking to Vordenberg,” Mattie gestured over her shoulder. 

“You guys know him too?” Laura asked, glancing over to where Mattie pointed.

“Almost as long as we’ve known Cochorane,” Mattie turned to look over to Theo just as he waved to her. “Excuse me,” Mattie smiled, glancing back over to Laura. “I’ll see you about, I hope?”

“Yeah,” Laura nodded, smiling. “see you,” 

Mattie turned after saying goodbye, and walked towards Theo, who exchanged a friendly wave with Laura. Laura turned to head back towards the table to refill her cocoa, but paused when she caught sight of someone entering the room out of the corner of her eye. She looked over to find Carmilla standing there, scanning the room. Carmilla’s eyes fell on Laura, and Laura’s stomach flipped as Carmilla shot her a wolfish grin. 

Laura watched as Carmilla sauntered over to the table and picked up a delicate flute of champagne, her pointed boots padding silently over the plush rugs that covered the floor. Black leather adorned her legs, though her seemingly ever present leather motorcycle jacket was missing, in it’s place a tight black lace shirt that exposed an equally lacy black bra underneath. Her hair hung in soft waves around her shoulders, and cast the right side of her face in shadow, though red lips pulled into a smirk could plainly be seen. 

Laura walked towards the table, a smile pulling at her lips. “Hey,” She smiled, stopping beside Carmilla as she reached for the ladle that still sat in the steaming pot of cocoa. “you came,”

“Mm,” Carmilla hummed, taking a sip of champagne and rolling it around her tongue before swallowing. “I had nothing better to do,” She murmured, “and I figured that if I were to attend a party at this school I’d rather it be somewhere with tolerable music and decent champaign, not with a collection of brutes around a piece of flaming drift wood,”

Laura laughed a little and took a sip of her cocoa. “Yeah, I’m not really one for frat parties either. I went to a few last year, but I got sick of waking up hungover pretty quick,”

Carmilla hummed in agreement. “Parties should be more than that,” She said quietly. “They used to be more than that,” She glanced down, her brows furrowing when she caught sight of Laura’s wrists. “You’re not wearing your charm,” She said, something strangely akin to what could be perceived as panic in her voice. 

“No, I am,” Laura said, lifting her hand to show her the small misshapen lumps under her sleeve. 

“Oh,” Carmilla said, quickly recovering. “good. It won't work if you don’t wear it,”

Laura nodded. “I know,” She was about to say something else when Danny walked over to them, drink in hand. 

“Hey Laura,” she smiled. Her gaze darkened as her eyes fell on Carmilla. “What are you doing here?”

Carmilla’s eyes hardened as she looked up at Danny. “I’m a popular girl, I get a lot of invitations,” She said, her voice cold. 

“She got invited with the rest of us,” Laura said, looking up at Danny as well.

“That was before she moved in,” Danny pointed out. 

“So?” Laura asked, “the invitation was for everyone who lives with us, so I told her about it,”

Danny hummed noncommittally. “LaF found some bizarre instrument across the room that they can’t stop raving about, want to go see it?” She asked, pointing over her shoulder with her thumb.

“Uh, sure, in a minute,” Laura said with a small smile, nodding. 

Danny nodded and walked away, but did so slowly, clearly wanting Laura to follow. Laura sighed a little and turned back to Carmilla. 

“So, yeah, about the charm,” Laura said, shaking her head a little to get her train of thought straight again. “I thought it might be good to hide it...LaF would probably want to study it and Danny would probably be weirded out,” She laughed a little, but then paused a moment. “Where did you even get something like this? I mean I know this is Silas, but still,”

Carmilla shrugged, swirling the last of her champagne around the flute. “It’s not all that interesting, really,” She said absently. She looked up at Laura, that coldness that hadn’t been there before Danny came over still present in the corners of her eyes as she smirked at her. “You might want to go catch up with your girlfriend before she gets upset,” She sneered, setting the flute down on the table after draining it. 

Laura’s brow knitted together in confusion. “Danny?” She said, taken aback, by Carmilla’s sudden hostility. “Danny’s not my girlfriend,”

“You sure about that cupcake?” Carmilla said with a bitter smile, glancing over at the redhead who was glowering at the taller of the two of them. “She sure acts like it,”

“I’m sure,” Laura said, her own gaze hardening. “she just gets...overprotective sometimes,”

“Whatever you say, creampuff,” Carmilla sneered, huffing a laugh. She looked over Laura’s shoulder and grinned at Danny. “She’s all yours, Xena,” She called, and then spun on her heel, a second flute of champagne in hand. 

Laura gaped at Carmilla’s back, speechless. _What the hell happened?_ The fact that Danny and Carmilla didn’t get along was no small secret, but Laura had thought that her and Carmilla had been making some kind of progress. She’d gotten Carmilla to _laugh._ She had a feeling that few people held that ability. And she’d actually been...excited to see Carmilla. A scowl overtook Laura’s features and she sighed, setting down her mug. She strode towards the door, grabbing her coat from the rack on her way out, and ignoring Danny as she called after her. 

Professor Cochorane watched as Laura took her coat from the coat rack and stepped outside, her eyes concerned. Vordenberg stepped up beside her, glancing from the now closed front door to Cochorane. 

“We need to go after her,” He said in a hushed voice.

“Patience, Baron,” Cochorane said quietly, “give her a moment, she’s upset. telling her now will only make things more difficult,”

“You do realize the Dark will strike now, when she’s vulnerable?” Vordenberg said.

“A moment, Baron,” Cochorane said sternly, “do you really think I would leave her defenseless? Let her breathe, and then I will go after her, and then you, Matska, and Theo will follow.”

Outside, Laura yanked her coat on and walked down he steps, breathing in the freezing air. It felt colder than it had when they’d arrived, but Laura ignored it as she walked down the driveway, figuring it was just because it was getting later. Laura pulled her sleeves over her hands and jammed them in her pockets, and continued down the driveway, just wanting to breathe a bit before heading back to the party. Or just heading home. She wasn’t sure yet. She wasn’t sure if she wanted to go back if Carmilla was going to be a jerk, and Danny was going to be...Danny. Laura made a mental note to talk to her. She knew Danny only meant well but it didn’t change the fact that it wasn’t okay. 

Laura didn’t notice the fog rolling in from the hills as she walked, being so lost in thought. She stopped when her feet hit grass, and look up, her shoulder slumping. 

“Oh crap,” She groaned, spinning around in a circle. The fog had come in fast and thick and now she had no idea which way the apartment was. Or the party, for that matter. She looked around herself, trying to gauge her whereabouts, and found that she could at least make out where she was stepping. Grumbling about Silas and it’s weirdness, she stepped back onto the cobblestone and followed it, hoping to come out near a building or a parking lot, or _something_ that might give her an idea of where she was going. She was just about to head left when she heard clattering in the distance. She paused, listening hard, and realized that it wasn’t clattering she was hearing, not really. As the sound grew closer, it became louder, heavier. Hooves. Hooves? Since when were there horses on campus? Silas had some...unique courses but Laura was pretty sure none of them included anything remotely equestrian. Unless the Alchemy Department came up with a horse made of prehensile cheese. 

Laura was snapped from her train of thought as the sound of hooves grew closer and closer, and she frantically looked around herself, trying to figure out what direction they were coming from when suddenly a mass of black broke through the fog not five feet from Laura, who shrieked and dove out of the way. 

_“What the hell??”_ Laura cried, rolling onto her back and picking herself up. She rubbed her arm and looked up at the rider. “You almost ran me...” her words died in her throat and her eyes widened as she took in the sight before her. The rider sat before her, her white horse huffing and creating little clouds of fog all his own. A mantle of black crow feathers were draped over the rider’s shoulders, and the rest of her form was swathed in black leather and cloth, worn reigns gripped tightly in gloved hands. 

“Hello, Laura,” The rider grinned, relishing in the sight of Laura’s gaping mouth and fearful eyes. “You have something I want,”

“Huh?” Laura squeaked, stepping back.

“Give me the signs,” The rider hissed, holding out her hand. 

“Signs? What is it with everyone asking for these signs??” Laura asked, eyes darting around her, looking for an escape rout, but the fog was still too dense to see very far. “I don’t even know what the signs are!”

“You _do_ ,” The rider insisted, “give them to me, now!”

“I don’t have what you want!” Laura said desperately, backing up faster now. She glanced behind her, and then turned around and bolted, her feet pounding against the grass and crunching against the small patches of snow that were still scattered about as she hoped to every god that might exist that she wouldn’t trip on anything. A ghost of a smile graced her lips for a split second--the fog seemed to be clearing up a bit. The rider was close behind though, and quickly gaining on her. Laura glanced behind her for a second, and let out a distressed whimper, pushing herself to run faster. Her throat was burning from the cold, her lungs screaming, but she kept running as fast as she could until the toe of her boot hooked under a fallen branch, sending her sprawling face first into a pile of leaves. The rider reared her horse behind her, and Laura rolled onto her back, desperately scrambling away from the rider.

_“Enough!”_

Both the rider and Laura stilled, and Laura looked past the rider as the rider turned around. Out of the fog strode four figures, all carrying rather threatening looking weapons.

“Leave her alone, rider,” Came a voice that Laura recognized as Mattie.

Laura got to her feet, too distracted by the scene before her to pick the leaves our of her hair or to brush the snow from her knees. 

“Back off, Lilita,” Theo growled, swinging his hammer back and forth. 

the rider, Lilita, sneered. “Or what?” she drawled, her horse pawing at the ground as she ran her fingers over the hilt of her sword. 

“You’re not strong enough to fight us all,” Vordenberg warned, unsheathing his own cane sword. 

“Not yet, maybe,” Lilita said, cocking her head. “but I will be, in time,” She looked back to Laura and grinned, fangs flashing in the dim light. “I’ll be back,” She reared her horse, laughing as she threw her head back. “They can’t protect you forever, Laura!” She cried, and then slapped the horses rear with her crop, galloping across the campus.

The four of them hurried towards Laura, lowering their weapons. 

“Are you alright?” Cochorane asked, holding Laura at arm’s length by her shoulders. 

“Peachy,” Laura squeaked, “What the hell was that?? _Who_ the hell was that? Since when do we have horses on campus, and _why_ does everybody insist I have these signs?! I don’t even know what that is!” Laura took a breath. “also, I tried looking it up and got nothing,” 

Cochorane suppressed a smile and patted Laura’s shoulder. “Come with us, we’ll explain everything,” 

“Come with you where?” Laura asked narrowing her eyes a little.

“Through time,” Theo grinned, beckoning for Laura to follow them.

Laura stood there for a moment and then shook her head and started after them. What other explanation was she expecting?

The four of them led Laura across campus, somehow knowing their way even in the fog. An arch made of granite and shrouded in dead vines loomed ahead--one of the few decorative sculptures that were dotted around campus. Strange markings were carved into the black granite, and upon closer inspection, the cold stone bore the same swirling motif at the top of the arch, guilded in gold, as the posts on the porch of Cochorane’s apartment. Laura’s eyes traced it as they got closer, and when they passed under the archway, a spinning sensation overtook them, sending Laura’s stomach lurching, and she briefly feared that her hot chocolate was going to make a reappearance. The spinning stopped as fast as it had started, and Laura looked around, eyes wide. 

“Um, where did the campus go?” She asked, looking out over a field of grass dotted with trees turning orange and gold where she was pretty sure the dorm halls should be. Only one building stood, It’s roughly hewn grey stone walls strong against the sky, and a flaming torch flanked either side of the grand door. A great round window was set into the front wall, under the peaked roof covered in red shingles. The Lustig. 

“Oh, it’s still there,” Mattie smiled, “in it’s own time,” 

“In it’s own time?” Laura asked, looking between the four of them. “And is that the Lustig?”

“It is,” Vordenberg nodded, “the Lustig has been standing for thousands of years. It’s timeless, really,”

Laura glanced at him, still utterly confused. “Of course it is,” she muttered to herself in resignation, and let herself be be led to the building by Mattie’s hand on her back. 

The five of them walked up the steps to the Lustig, the doors opening before them, heavy wooden planks creaking on ancient iron hinges. Inside, the hall was lit by torches and troughs of fire that lined the walls, casting the grey stone in flickering golden light and shadows. at the opposite end of the hall stood a grand table, looking to be made from the same wood as the doors, and was etched with symbols as well, though no chairs stood around it. In the center of the room there was a deep pit, seemingly going on forever. On the wall behind the table hung an enormous navy blue flag, bearing the Silas crest embroidered in rich red and gold thread. 

“This does not look like the Lustig,” Laura murmured, looking around the room in awe. 

Theo chucked. “Renovations came later. Much later. But this moment in time is our sanctuary. The Dark can’t enter here unless we let it. Which we won’t,”

“The Dark?” Laura asked, her confusion only getting worse. 

The four of them led Laura over to the table, on which sat an ancient looking book bound in worn brown leather and iron.

“Can somebody please explain to me what is gong on?” Laura huffed, throwing her arms up. “Creepy frat boys who turn into _crows_ and weird ladies on horses keep chasing me, demanding ‘signs’ and I don’t know what that is! And we apparently stepped through time? I’ve heard that the physics courses here are kind of unorthodox but that seems like it’s pushing it just a _little_ ,” 

Mattie didn’t even try to stifle a laugh as Cochorane stepped forward, an amused smile quirking her lips. “We are the Old Ones,” Cochorane said, holding a hand up before Laura could cut in. “well, technically we don't have an age,”

“We exist outside of time,” Vordenberg interjected, leaning on his cane. 

Laura stared at them all silently, mouth agape. 

“You’re one of us, also,” Mattie said, stepping towards Laura. “You stopped aging the day you turned twenty,”

“I’m sorry, what now?” Laura asked, eyebrows raising. 

“She’s right,” Cochorne said, putting a hand on Laura’s shoulder. “Lets just start from he beginning, shall we?” Her eyes swept her companions, who all nodded. “As I said, Laura, we are the Old Ones. We serve the Light, while the rider who chased you, Lilita, serves the Dark. The Dark is rising, and we must fight it. As Mattie said, you’re one of us--you are the sign seeker,” She led Laura over to one of the walls which was covered in intricate carvings, like frescos set in stone of small figures embroiled in what looked like a grand battle. “Thousands and thousands of years ago,” Cochorane continued, “there was a war between the Light and the Dark, and we triumphed, but only marginally. There were many casualties, but the Dark was defeated. Unfortunately, though, the Dark wasn’t destroyed. After the battle, a woman we knew, a craftsman, harnessed the power of the Light and forged them into six signs, and scattered them throughout time to keep them safe and hidden from the Dark.” Cochorane turned to Laura. “Your twentieth birthday brought many changes. You stopped aging, for one. We all stop aging at different points, I stopped at thirty eight, Mattie stopped at twenty four, Vordenberg at seventy, and Theo at thirty. You were also able to sense a sign just after your birthday,” 

“But I don’t have a sign,” Laura protested, “I don’t even know what one looks like,” 

“Well, frankly, we don’t either,” Vordenberg said. “they can be disguised, hidden in other objects. No matter what though, you will be drawn to it. It will be irresistible to you,” 

Laura clenched the little box in her hand tightly. “How do you know I’m the one?” She asked, “what separates me from anyone else?”

“It was foretold that a woman, small in stature, and the youngest of seven would bear a heart of Light and defeat the Dark,” 

“Youngest of seven?” Laura asked, “you mean my roommates?” 

Theo nodded. “Your friends are part of this as well, they have their roles to fill,” He paused a moment. “Have you been feeling...disoriented? Having headaches? Been unable to focus?”

Laura extracted her hand from her pocket and wrapped her right hand around her left wrist, feeling the bumps of the charm under her sleeve. “Yeah, I have,” She said quietly, and then chewed on her lip a little. This explained everything. Like Theo said, the disorientation, the headaches...the frat boys that exploded into a flock of crows. The rider. And judging by the rider’s cloak and the frat boys, the flocks of crows that had been following her around seemed to have to do with this as well. She looked at the four of them as they waited patiently for her to answer, and then her eyes wandered to the walls of the hall, the table, the window, the pit in the center of the room. Laura found that she felt...safe, here. At home, like this was a place she was supposed to be. She felt it deep in her gut, a grounding feeling she couldn’t ignore. None of this should be siting well with her, Jesus Christ, they’d just told her that was _immortal_ , but she couldn’t find any panic in her to feel. Clammy palms, yes, but no uncomfortable twisting of the gut, no shaking hands. She took a breath before speaking, trying to process everything but failing miserably. “What happens if the Dark wins?” 

The faces of the four of them darkened, their expressions growing grim. Cochorane led Laura over to a large magnifying glass that sat atop the table. “This is what will happen,” She said solemnly, handing it to Laura.

Laura looked into the magnifying glass and watched as black fog crept over the antique glass, obscuring her reflection. She gasped as the fog seemed to seep out of the glass alarmingly fast, enveloping her. The blackness swirled around her, obscuring her view of the hall, and in the dark she saw images of her friends being sucked into the blackness, she heard the screams of Danny and Perry and a yelp that sounded like Kirsch, watched as black fog crept down JP and LaFontaine’s throats and watched as the dark cloaked her childhood home, breaking the windows and she heard the screams of her father as the shingles were ripped from the exterior walls. She saw a pair of deep brown eyes that looked strikingly familiar but for some reason she couldn’t place welled with tears and and full of grief. She watched as darkness followed the rider over green fields and through villages and she watched as it enveloped the world. Laura couldn’t watch anymore, couldn’t take anymore as she felt tears prick her eyes. The magnifying glass slipped from her fingers and she stumbled back, her foot catching on a raised stone in the floor, and she landed flat on her back, the wind rushing from her lungs. 

The darkness receded, and instead of worn beams and stone walls, Laura saw the stars overhead, and felt the freezing wind over her face, the grass and snow beneath her fingers. she caught her breath and stood up, looking around as she rubbed the back of her head. The archway was to her right, a few yards away, and the fog had cleared, leaving the campus bathed in moonlight and entirely visible. Laura got to her feet and looked up at the stars, her eyes looking overwhelmed and almost dazed as she gazed up at the sky. She turned towards the apartment a few minutes later, her fingers wrapping around the little box as she hunched her shoulders against the cold, and started back home.


	9. Chapter 8

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> How do you tell your friends that you stepped through time?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey everyone, I'm terribly sorry about how long it's been since the last update. This chapter was originally going to be a lot longer, but it got to the point where I was forgetting what was going on at the beginning of the chapter, and it was getting harder and harder to write, so I decided to split it and put the rest in chapter 9. From now on I'm just going to update as frequently as possible because having a schedule for updates was really stressing me out, and hopefully without that stress, I'll be able to get chapters out more regularly. We'll see :)
> 
> thanks so much for reading, and if you're so inclined, maybe drop me a comment :) I'd love to hear from you guys!
> 
> Also I hope everyone's Thanksgiving was great!

Laura inserted her key into the door and pushed it open, shuffling inside quietly. The walk home had been freezing and decidedly miserable--wet jeans were not conducive to comfort during winter in Styria. She sighed and put her keys back in her pocket and bent over, beginning to unlace her boots. 

“Laura??” Danny called, running into the room from upstairs, “Laura where the hell have you been!? We’ve been worried sick, we all tried calling you, why didn’t you pick up??”

Laura jumped, startled by Danny’s barrage of questions. “I went for a walk,” Laura said, recovering with a little shrug as she straightened up, toeing her boots into the space between LaFontaine’s and JP’s.

“For three hours?!” Danny nearly yelled, “You’re covered in leaves and your jeans are all wet, are you hurt? Did someone hurt you??” She reached around Laura and yanked the door shut, flicking the deadbolt over. 

“No, Danny, I’m fine,” Laura sighed. “I just needed some air, so I left the party,”

“For _three_ hours?” Danny said again as she raised an eyebrow and crossed her arms, making Laura feel every bit a scolded child.

“I’m sorry I was gone so long and I’m sorry I worried everyone, but I’m _fine_ , okay?” Laura said, pulling her coat off and hanging it on the coat rack by the door. “And I think my phone died, so that’s why I didn’t pick up,” She gritted her teeth a little, quelling the annoyance inside her. “Look, other than maybe a little scrape I’m fine. I wasn’t drunk, I only had a little Bailey’s at the party. Nobody hurt me, okay? It got foggy and I lost my footing, and I fell into a pile of leaves,”

“You said you fell last time you came home all scuffed up,” Danny said, skeptically. 

“Well, it’s true. I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but I’m not the most coordinated of people sometimes,” Laura said, her words coming out a little harsher than intended.

Danny scrutinized her for a moment and then sighed. “Alright, fine. But tell me if something’s wrong okay?” She asked, “I just worry because I care about you, you know that right?”

Laura sighed, softening a little. “I know, Danny,” She said, running a hand through her hair. “I get it, and I appreciate it, but like I said before, I can take care of myself,” She said, going to walk around her. She stopped for a moment and looked back. “Night,”

Danny watched silently as Laura left the room, and then sighed, going back to the kitchen to make a cup of tea. 

Laura walked into her room, only to have her annoyance increase tenfold when she found Carmilla lounging across leopard sheets, head resting on her yellow pillow, and her nose in a book. “You’re here,” Laura huffed, pulling her sweatshirt off. 

“Been here a while,” Carmilla sighed, turning a page.

“I figured you’d be out doing whatever it is you do at night,” Laura glanced at her as she threw her sweatshirt onto the bed.

“It’s a little nippy out,” Carmilla drawled, still not looking up.

“Well my pillow isn’t crucial to your warmth so could I maybe have it back?” Laura said heatedly, letting her arms fall to her sides. 

“It’s in my half room cutie, and possession is nine-tenths,” Carmilla sneered. 

“That doesn’t count when you stole it off of _my_ bed and _put_ it in your side of the room!”

“What’s got your panties in a wad, Hollis? Have a fight with your girlfriend?” Carmilla smirked, sitting up now.

“Danny is not my girlfriend!!” Laura exploded, her arms in the air. “my panties are in a wad because you were a raging b-” She paused, looking for the right word, “raging bad person at the party and I don’t get why!”

“Oh yeah? When have I ever been warm and cuddly?” Carmilla shot back.

“Well, you were starting to be nice... _er_ ,” Laura huffed. 

Carmilla huffed a laugh. “I didn’t particularly feel like interacting with Xena,” She drawled, “ginger upsets my stomach,”

Laura stared at her for a moment before making a noise that was halfway between a growl and a muffled scream, her fingers scrunching up into claws. “I’m going to go take a shower because I smell like overbrewed polyjuice potion,” She gritted out. She grabbed her clothes, ignoring Carmila’s quip of ‘so that’s what the smell was’ and stalked off to the bathroom. 

\----

Later that night, with her dirty clothes currently in the wash, Laura was huddled up in bed in an oversized sweatshirt with a pack of cookies next to her, and her laptop on her lap. Carmilla had been gone from their room by the time she’d returned from showering, so Laura had jumped at the opportunity to do some research into the weird that had taken over her night while her room was mercifully empty. She didn’t want to deal with any prying questions--not that Carmilla asked many, but still--and her shower had relaxed her and she really didn’t feel like getting riled up again. 

The quiet sound of clacking keys and crinkling plastic filled the dim room as she reached for another cookie while sifting through website after website. She quietly grumbled to herself as she scrolled through one website and then quickly backed out of it, moving onto the next when she realized the site was mainly for selling gaudy trinkets from Salem. 

\----

Hours passed, and three am found Laura eyeball deep in an obscure occult website, her eyelids drooping, and her hand groping around an empty packet of cookies. She set the wrapper on her headboard and sat up straight again, rubbing her eyes hard with her fists, trying to wake up enough to read the section she’d just come across.

“The Light and the Dark have been fighting for thousands of years...blah blah blah...I already knew that....” Laura mumbled to herself, skimming the article. She stopped a few sentences down. “The Light and Dark are tangible forces? What the...??” she muttered, reading further. 

She felt ice drip down her insides a while later when she landed on one word. 

“Oh god...tangible forces...this is physics,” She whispered to herself. She ran a hand through her hair and kept scrolling, trying to ignore the ice in her stomach and the prickle at the nape of her neck. 

 

\----

Carmilla knew she probably shouldn’t have left earlier when she appeared in their darkened room a few hours later, black smoke rolling off her body and dissipating into the air around her. She glanced over at Laura, and with relief, found her in bed under the covers, but sitting up with her laptop on her lap, and her head leaning in what looked like a rather uncomfortable angle onto her own shoulder. The dim glow from the screensaver cast shades of blue, purple, and green over Laura’s face, slowly moving and transitioning from color to color. 

Carmilla smiled a little and then shook her head, sighing as the smile faded. On second thought, it might not have been a bad idea to leave after their fight. She couldn’t have Laura thinking she was going to apologize. She couldn’t, for Laura’s own sake. Camilla knew Laura had already been confronted by the rider, but she still needed to have Laura stay far away from her. Still needed to have Laura not like her.

But...if Laura shifted in bed, her laptop could easily crash to the floor and quite possibly break...and also wake her up.

Carmilla stepped forward quietly, against her better judgement, and slowly took the laptop from Laura’s lap, careful not to jostle the bed or tangle the cord, closed it, and set it on Laura’s desk. She went back for the empty cookie wrapper and placed it in the trash before moving to her own bed and crawling under the covers, not bothering to change. She rolled onto her side, sighing as she watched Laura from across the room. Laura was normally a light sleeper, but she was out cold tonight, probably overwhelmed by everything that had happened, Carmilla thought. Carmilla allowed herself to smile a little as she watched a bit of Laura’s hair blow back and forth with her breath. The little human shifted, mumbling something as she clumsily rubbed her hand over her face in her sleep, and then slid down a bit so she was more towards laying down than sitting up. 

Carmilla shoved her face into her pillow and growled under her breath, turned over, and yanked the covers over her head.

\----

“What? No cocoa today?” LaF teased, leaning on the counter and peering into Laura’s cup, which, sure enough, was filled with (very light) coffee.

“I was up late last night,” Laura shrugged, still somewhat asleep. She’d gotten up at seven, and could use about another twelve hours of sleep. 

“Yeah, you never did say where you went after you left the party,” LaF said, taking a seat at the counter now. “everything okay, Frosh?”

Laura nodded. “Yeah, I went for a walk. It’s kind of a long story, I’ll tell you guys later,” She said, waving her hand a little and hoping LaF would drop the subject for now. 

LaF nodded, but didn’t push for more answers. They were good like that. Curious as hell and unafraid of the weird, of course, but they were also patient. Most of the time. Thankfully, the fates were merciful on Laura and down the stairs came Perry, who walked over to them both with a cheery hello, and dropped a kiss on LaFontaine’s lips before going to the fridge to make breakfast.

JP trotted down the stairs a few minutes later and headed towards the printer that was set up on one of the bookshelves, dressed in a pair of black pinstriped pants, a black dress shirt, and a grey vest. He’d cleaned up and trimmed his stubble too, which was a little odd, unless--

“Got a presentation today, Jeep?” LaF asked, taking a sip of their coffee and spinning around on the stool to face him. 

“Yes,” He nodded, glancing up from the stack of papers he’d just pulled from the printer. “It’s part of my midterm and dressing up is required,” he walked over to the kitchen, but slowed to a stop in front of LaFontaine, his eyes narrowing in confusion as he flipped through his papers. 

“Hey, is that my polka-dot bowtie?” LaF asked, raising an eyebrow. JP didn’t respond, still scanning his papers with a confused look plastered on his face. “Hey, Jeep,” laF prompted.

“Sorry, yes, it is,” He said distractedly.

“What’s wrong? You’re all distracted,” LaF asked, setting their coffee down. 

“Oh, nothing, just some of these papers aren’t mine,” He said.

A crunching noise sounded from where Laura stood behind the counter, pouring herself a bowl of chokoa crunch. She winced and set the slightly crumpled box down at the three of them looked at her questioningly. “Uh, sorry JP, those are mine, I must have forgotten to take them out of the printer let night,” She hurried around the counter to get them, but he was still scanning them with mild interest. 

“Since when have you expressed an interest in physics?” JP asked, raising an eyebrow. 

“Physics?” LaF asked, their interest piqued.

Perry walked over and peered at the pages over JP’s shoulder. “And the occult,” She said, looking concerned.

“Who’s into the occult?” Danny asked, coming downstairs. 

“Oh, yeah, I’m uh, doing a paper on the...correlation between the sciences and the occult,” Laura spluttered, waving her hands around for emphasis. “for journalism,” 

“Really?” JP asked. The others shot her confused and unconvinced looks.

“Yeah,” Laura nodded, her voice a little too high to be convincing. “there’s been an...increase in interest in it lately,”

“Huh,” JP shrugged, handing Laura back the papers, who snatched them from his hand just a little too quickly. 

“I’m going to go up and get ready for class,” Laura said, pointing up the stairs before dashing towards them. Everyone shot each other confused glances and shrugs, and then went back to what they were doing, only to be interrupted by Laura again, who ran back down the stairs halfway. “Uhh, is everyone going to be home for dinner tonight?”

“Yes, I’m making soup tonight, remember?” Perry said, looking a little concerned. “Why?”

“Right!” Laura said, “ Of course, yeah I remember. And uh, no reason,” she shrugged. “I just might need to tell you guys something is all,”

Danny went to ask Laura what she meant by that, but the tiny brunette had scampered upstairs before she could say anything.

\----

Laura hand’t retained a single thing all day.

Classes had dragged by, and Laura had spent the majority of them blankly staring at the board and listening to her professors, but not hearing a word of any of it. Her mind had been constantly whirring all day instead, trying to figure out how the hell she was going to explain everything to her friends. She hadn’t even fully comprehended everything herself, how in the hell was she supposed to explain this and not look like she’d completely lost her mind? 

As always, stress and the uncertainty of what may lie ahead just made Laura want cocoa.

The barista at the campus coffee house gave Laura a concerned look when the tiny human came in for her third cup that afternoon.

\----

Gnomes may be pests, and they may bite, but they certainly had their merits. 

Like keeping the Robespierre building closed for another day, sending Laura home two hours early, which she was eternally grateful for. Laura intended on going home, maybe taking a short nap and then somewhat regrouping herself before having to tell her friends about her fate, or their fate or...whatever. 

When she walked through the front door, however, it was apparent that the road to her nap and then on to the dreaded explanation might be a bit bumpier than expected. Mere moments after Laura toed off her boots did she notice Perry looking at her from the couch with a look of concern mixed with that motherly look that suggests she knows you're not telling her something. 

“Uh, hey Perry,” Laura said, waving awkwardly as she set her bag down to take off her coat.

“Afternoon, Laura,” Perry answered in a slightly more strained version of her usual chipper voice. “how was your day?”

“Tiring, but at least it was shorter because the Robespierre building is still overrun by gnomes,” She laughed a little, hoping to ease the tension. “yours?”

“I’m sure they’re actually just um, rats, or mice, maybe,” Perry said, waving her hand. 

“Really Perr?” LaFontaine sighed as they sat down next to her. “hey frosh,” they said, smiling at Laura. 

“What? That’s not outside the realm of possibilities,” Perry huffed.

“LaF’s right, Perr,” Laura said, “the email specifically said ‘gnome infestation’,”

Laura shook her head a little as she entered the kitchen, listening to the two gingers bicker over the existence of gnomes. You’d think Perry would have accepted the weird after the six foot toadstool attack of the year before, but that woman’s powers of denial were unbelievable. A frown pulled at Laura’s lips. Perry would be hard to convince when she told everyone what had happened. For now though, she shook off the thought and grabbed some leftovers from the fridge and then headed upstairs after heating them up in the microwave. 

“Hey Hollis,” Came a hesitant voice as she stepped onto the second floor.

Laura looked up to find Danny standing halfway down the hall, looking an odd mixture of sheepish and suspicious. “Oh, hey, Danny,” She said, smiling a bit. Her stomach flipped, but not in a good way. More squirming, less butterflies. Actually, there had been less butterflies for a while now. 

“How was your day?” The redhead asked in that same hesitant voice. 

Laura shrugged a little. “It was okay, classes in the Robespierre building are still canceled, so. It was nice to get home early. Uh, what about yours?”

Danny nodded a little and then shrugged herself. “Can’t complain,”

“Uh, good,” Laura smiled. “I’m uh, just going to do some homework and then maybe take a nap. I’ll see you at dinner?”

“Yeah,” Danny nodded, and then stepped into her room, closing the door. 

Laura heaved a sigh and stepped into her own room, quietly toeing the door closed so as to not wake Carmilla up. Carmilla had been in bed and asleep by the time Laura woke up that morning, and upon waking up herself, Laura had noticed that her laptop was sitting on her desk, and not her lap. She didn’t remember getting up to put it away though. She’d wondered that morning if maybe Carmilla had moved it, but no, that was impossible. Her and Carmilla had fought only hours before, why would Carmilla want to do anything to help her so soon? Or at all for that matter? They’d had a bumpy start, but then things had seemed to get better between them, only to get worse again. And Laura still didn’t know why. All she knew was that she didn’t like it.

Camilla grumbled something in her sleep, and rolled over, causing Laura to look over quickly in alarm. Luckily though, Carmilla was still dead to the world. Laura breathed a sigh of relief and settled onto her bed with her lunch, and quietly dug in as she went over the papers she’d printed out the night before. Later on in the day it’d become apparent that she was incapable of paying attention to _anything_ any of her professors were saying, so for the last three classes she was in, she’d taken to pouring over the papers once again, underlining and scribbling notes and questions in the margins. She trusted Cochrane, Vordenberg, Mattie and Theo for some reason, and she knew in her heart this was real, but seriously, two of them were professors. The least they could do was point her the direction of some helpful reading material. The articles she’d found were fairly sparse and raised more questions than it answered, really. 

An empty plate of leftover lasagna and countless more scribbles later, Laura shoved the papers away into her backpack and groaned quietly, dropping onto her pillow. She curled up onto her side, wanting to take a little nap and shut her brain off for a little while.

\----

It was the fourth time that night that Laura’s spoon had clattered loudly against the side of her soup bowl.

The others had looked away from the movie and at her a few times, and then at each other, eyebrows furrowed in confusion, but let it slide. Danny’s mouth was firmly clamped shut save for when she ate, but she kept shooting Laura questioning glances. 

Laura caught one of her looks and her spoon clattered loudly once more. 

“Oookay,” Laura said finally, setting her bowl of soup down on the coffee table and reaching for the remote to pause the movie. “I have to tell you guys something, and I’m probably going to sound insane, okay, but I need you guys to just try to believe me because this is really important and it involves all of you.” She said in a rush, her fingers fiddled with the remote as she looked around, taking in their curious expressions. Carmilla wasn’t among them. She was still upstairs, and Laura knew that she had to tell Carmilla too--Cochorane had said that this prophecy or whatever they wanted to call it involved all seven of them--she just didn’t know how to approach Carmilla yet. 

“Go ahead, Frosh,” LaFontaine said, their expression curious with a little smile curling their lips. 

Laura nodded a little, returning the smile albeit a bit nervously. “Okay, so uh, remember how I came back really late from the party?”

“Yeah, you said you went for a walk?” JP said before slurping down a spoonful of soup.

“Yeah...technically,” Laura said a little sheepishly. 

“What do you mean ‘technically’?” Danny asked, sitting up now. 

“I did go for a walk,” Laura said, “but, uh, some other stuff happened too. It was really foggy, so I kind of got lost on the way back to the apartment, and then I, um, got chased. By a woman on a horse,”

“You got chased?!” Danny exploded, “By someone on a horse?? Laura, you said you were fine, that you’d just tripped!”

“I did trip!” Laura said, defensively. “It was foggy and I couldn’t really see where I was running so the toe of my boot got caught under a branch,”

“Sweetie, the university doesn’t own any horses,” Perry said, looking concerned. 

“Guys, let her talk,” LaF said looking around the room. 

Laura gave LaF a nod of appreciation and took a deep breath, diving into her story. She recounted everything that had happened the previous night, in as much detail that she could remember. Getting lost in the fog on the way home from the party, hearing the sound of the horse’s hooves on the pavement before she’d been able to see the horse. Nearly getting run over by it. How the Rider had demanded these things she called signs and how she’s ran, not knowing what on earth the rider was talking about. How Cochorane, Vordenberg, Theo and Mattie had saved her and took her through time and to the Lustig. How they’d revealed themselves as immortal beings, how they’d told her of her fate and told her that her friends would play apart in it as well. The magnifying glass that showed her what would happen if they failed.

Nearly a half an hour later, Laura fell silent, still shaking off the chill that had run down her back at the memory of what she’d seen in magnifying glass. Nobody had noticed that halfway through her story, a slight figure had slunk silently down the stairs and into the kitchen, and had been standing there, motionless, for the last fifteen minutes with half a bowl of soup in her right hand and the ladle in her left. Camilla watched Laura silently, and then and then briefly glanced at the others before her eyes settled on Laura once again.

Everyone was staring at Laura in silence, their faces bearing a range of expressions.

Laura was suddenly very happy he’d left out the small detail of her own apparent immortality. Baby steps, she figured. She’d drop that little tidbit later on when she actually had some physical proof of all of this, and when she was sure that her friends weren’t planning on sending her to Student Health Services. 

“Can someone please say something,” Laura begged, looking rather desperate with her face bunched up and her fingers playing with the hem of her shirt. 

“So you’re saying that a woman dressed black chased you on a horse, demanding you give her something called ‘the signs’, and you don’t know what that is. And right before she was about to pulverize you, Cochorane, Vordenberg, and the people from that coffeehouse stopped her, and then brought you through time to a version of the Lustig that exists _outside_ of time, and told you that all of us are going to have to fight this dark force and if we don’t, the world will basically end?” LaFontaine asked.

“...yes.” Laura said, expression anxious. 

“I believe you,” LaFontaine said, looking at Laura, and then at the others.

“You do?” Laura asked, dumbfounded.

“LaFontaine, you cannot be serious,” Perry hissed. She turned to Laura. “Sweetie, are you feeling okay? You’ve had a lot oh homework and papers right? And exams are coming up, this could all be stress related--”

“Come on, is this really so hard to believe?” LaFontaine asked, looking around at the rest of the group.

“It’s a _little_ far fetched...” Danny said. She caught the hurt look Laura was giving her, and attempted to backtrack. “I don’t wanna say I don’t believe you, but you were drinking, right? I know you said you didn’t have a lot, but you are kind of a lightweight...”

“Guys, are you forgetting the attack of the six foot mushrooms last year?” LaFontaine asked, looking vaguely exasperated. “Or the fact that all the classes in the Robespierre building have been canceled for the last two days because of a _gnome_ infestation? Or the fact that some of Professor Parson’s anti-space leaked out of one of the physics buildings back in October and temporarily shifted a chunk of the campus fifteen minutes into the future?” They leaned forward and picked their half eaten bowl of soup up again, and took a bite. “As far as I’m concerned, this really isn’t al that bizarre,”

“I believe you too, Laura,” JP said, sitting up a bit more and fiddling with the end of his tie as he looked at her. He briefly glanced around the room at the others. “I was there when the anti-space leak happened. After seeing that, time travel really doesn’t sound all that odd.” He shrugged, his movements a little jerky. “And the theme of Light and Dark has been prevalent throughout history, in many cultures,”

“I believe you too, little nerd,” Kirsch nodded seriously, “I mean, before I got kicked out of the Zeta house, our microwave spit out one of my bros’ food, unplugged itself, and walked out of the kitchen,”

Laura’s face softened, and she smiled at them. “Thanks, guys, really,” She looked to Perry and Danny after a moment, and sighed, looking down at her hands. “I don’t have any proof of this,” She said, looking up again, “I know it sounds insane. I’m still trying to wrap my head around it myself, but I really, really need you guys to believe me,” there was an edge of desperation in her voice again. “This is _real_. What I saw was real, and it involves all of us, and _terrible_ things will happen if we don’t help Cochorane and Vordenberg and Mattie and Theo. I saw what would happen if we don’t...” She trailed off, mentally shaking off another shiver as she remembered the eyes she’d seen in the magnifying glass. She still couldn’t place them. She absently ran her thumb back and forth over the small lumps of the batwing bracelet that sat under her sleeve. “You guys have met all of them, doesn’t something _feel_ off about them? I mean, Cochorane has always seemed a little eccentric, and Vordenberg has always just been _weird_ , but Mattie and Theo? They don’t look much older than us, but they _feel_ older, right?”

Lafontaine nodded in agreement, as did JP after a moment

Danny sighed and sat up, running a hand through her hair as she mulled over what Laura had said. “Okay.” She said after a moment. “Okay, I believe you. Mattie and what’s his name? Theo? They did kind of weird me out a little. And I know you love fantasy, you wouldn’t lie about something like this, and, let’s be honest, Silas isn’t exactly _normal_ ,”

“Thanks, Danny,” Laura smiled a little, letting out a breath. She looked to Perry. “Perry?”

Perry squirmed under Laura’s gaze, and looked down at her lap, smoothing out a wrinkle in her jeans. “Well,” She started out, obviously rather uncomfortable, “it sounds a little...far fetched,” She looked around the room, eyes uncertain. “but if you all believe that it’s true, I suppose...I could...come around to it,”

Relief flooded through Laura. Coming from Perry, that was as good as a resounding yes. Now she just had to figure out how to explain this to Carmilla. That was a problem for another day. She wasn’t going to worry about that right now. “Thank you, guys, really,” Laura said, sinking back into the pillows as she relaxed. 

“No problem, Frosh, we got your back,” LaFontaine grinned. “So,” they said, clapping their hands together, “I suggest we research? If this involves all of us, then it’s best to be educated, yes?”

“We can try,” Laura said, “I didn’t really get very far last night and I probably went through like fifty websites. The only thing that was remotely helpful were the pages JP found in the printer this morning, but they really raised more questions than they answered,”

“Well, maybe we’ll get further with all of us researching it,” LaFontaine said. 

JP nodded in agreement. “Give me a list of things that are relevant and I’ll put together an algorithm,” He said, getting up to get his laptop.

Perry got up as well, and began cleaning up the dishes from dinner. “I don’t really know a lot about this kind of thing, but I can make brownies,” She offered, trying to be supportive.

“That’s great, Perr, thanks,” Laura smiled.

Perry nodded, smiling tightly, and made her way towards the kitchen just as the last wisps of a plume of black smoke were dissipating into the air behind the counter. 

\----

“We are getting nowhere,” Danny said, looking up from her laptop four hours later.

“Not _nowhere_ ,” JP said carefully.

LaFontaine sat back in their chair. “Just not particularly _far_ ,”

Laura groaned. “Honestly, two of them are _professors_ , you’d think they’d point us in the direction of some reading material. Maybe ‘Fighting the Dark for Dummies’?”

“Wait, there’s a book on that?” Kirsch said, looking up from his laptop.

“No, there isn’t, Kirsch,” Danny sighed, running a hand down her face.

JP thought for a moment. “Well, maybe they did,” He said, looking around at the rest of them. 

“What do you mean?” Laura asked.

“Well, there is always the library. Of all the places around here, the information we need would be in the Theopilus library,” he said, fiddling with the end of his tie again.

“You can’t be serious,” Danny said flatly. “do you have any idea how dangerous that place is?”

“Actually, yes,” JP said, sitting up a little more, and looking a little uncomfortable under Danny’s hard gaze. “I’m acutely aware of how dangerous it is, being a junior records clerk my freshman year. A two hundred year old philosophy tome ate the tie off of my neck.” he shook off the memory. “Danger aside, I do believe it is our best bet. I know my way around, and I know which parts are dangerous and which are not as dangerous. On a good night the stair movements follow a pattern, so I’ve learned how to time it and move around safely. As long as we all carry blunt objects I believe we’ll do just fine,”

“I’m game,” LaFontaine said, grinning. 

Danny looked wary, and Laura sighed a little, biting her lip. “The only way we’re going to get anywhere is if we get more information,” 

“Fine. But we are bringing the baseball bats,” Danny relented. 

“So it’s settled then,” Laura said with a smile, looking between JP, LaF, Kirsch, and Danny.

“I guess so,” Danny sighed, running a hand through her red hair.

JP looked a bit nervous but mostly excited, Kirsch looked overly enthusiastic, and LaF looked vaguely...maniacal. 

Perry set down a plate of freshly baked brownies, and then flitted out of the room and back to the kitchen again, looking exceedingly uncomfortable. LaFontaine watched her and sighed a little, and then turned back to their laptop.

“Everything okay with you two?” Laura asked tentatively. 

LaFontaine looked up. “Yeah, everything’s fine,” they said with a reassuring smile. “It may just take her a while to wrap her head around this. Possibly years.”


	10. Chapter 9

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> While necessary, a nighttime trip to the library isn't the safest of plans.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> GUYS IT HAS BEEN SO LONG I'M SO SORRY. Thank you so much for being patient with me, holy shit. Life's been crazy and for some reason I just wasn't able to wrap my head around this AU for a while, but I'm back, and I promise this AU will be finished. Also just little reminder that I won't be sticking to a schedule anymore for this fic to both take the pressure off myself and also not to disappoint you guys if a chapter's late. 
> 
>  
> 
> Again, thank you guys so much for being patient with me, and here's chapter 9 :)
> 
> be sure to check out my [TDIRAU page](http://batwingsandblackcats.tumblr.com/tagged/TDIRAU) for additional content and accompanying music!

Laura was the last one to call it quits for the night. The living room was dark, the only light coming from the kitchen, the colored lights on the tree, and her laptop screen as she continued flipping through websites. She blindly reached in front of her for her cocoa as she read, and raised it to her lips, only find it empty. 

“Time for bed,” Laura mumbled to herself after staring into the cup a moment too long. She set her mug down and closed her laptop, and headed for the stairs, flicking off the kitchen lights on the way. 

Upstairs, Laura set her laptop down on her desk and went to pull the covers back on her bed, when she noticed something sitting on her pillow. Her eyebrows pulled together in confusion as she picked up the small chocolate bar that had been resting there, and she turned it over in her hands in confusion as she glanced overt Carmilla’s bed. It was, unsurprisingly, empty. Though, there was an empty soup bowl sitting on her headboard. When had she gone down to get dinner? Everyone had been downstairs, how did they not see her come downstairs, or go back upstairs, for that matter? Laura chewed on her lip as her attention was drawn back to the little chocolate bar in her hand. 

Everyone had been downstairs for the majority of the night. Well, except for Carmilla. And who would leave it there for her anyways? Maybe Danny? Laura’s stomach turned. A larger part of her than normal hoped she didn’t. This wasn’t really Danny’s style though, Laura realized with relief that she’d rather not analyze at the moment. She looked over at Carmilla’s bed again. Carmilla was the only one who hadn’t been downstairs with them, and...subtlety was more her style. Laura smiled and glanced at Carmilla’s bed again. She really didn’t know why Carmilla might have left it, but if she had left it, maybe they were forming some sort of truce again. Laura hoped so.

The little human grinned as an idea formed in her head. She set the chocolate down on her headboard and hurried back out of her room and down the stairs, making her way to the kitchen. Laura took the tupperware out of the fridge that held the rest of the brownies that Perry had baked that night, and placed two of them on a small plate she’d taken from the cabinet over the sink, and then placed the tupperware back in the fridge. She headed back upstairs and placed the little plate on top of one of Carmilla’s books, next to one of the candles on her headboard.

\-----

One thirty found Carmilla traipsing in through the her bedroom door and shrugging out of her jacket. She stopped short, though, when she saw that Laura was still up and puttering around the room. Only her owl lamp was on, and the little human was rearranging a few books on her headboard. 

Laura looked up when she heard footsteps, and smiled a little. “Uh...hey,”

“Hey,” Carmilla said after a moment. She made her way over to her bed and slung her bag off of her shoulder onto her bed.

“Can I ask you something?” Laura asked after a moment, somewhat hesitantly.

“Shoot, buttercup,” Carmilla sighed, digging around in her bag. 

“Why did you leave the chocolate on my pillow?”

Camilla paused, but didn’t look up. “Why do you think it was me?”

“Because nobody else would leave it there,” Laura shrugged.

“What about the ginger giant?”

“Subtlety really isn’t Danny’s forte,” Laura said with a small laugh. 

“No, I suppose it isn't.” Camilla said, the corner of her mouth lifting slightly. “You can eat it, you know. I didn’t poison it,”

Laura raised an eyebrow in bemusement. There was that odd playfulness again. “I know, I was just saving it.” She paused. “So...why’d you leave it?” 

“I, ah...” Camilla turned around but didn’t meet Laura’s eyes. She rubbed the back of her neck a little and looked up, her bottom lip trapped between her teeth. “I felt, uh, bad about our fight,” She said quietly, clearly extremely uncomfortable. “and I know you like chocolate, so,”

“Thanks,” Laura smiled after a beat of silence, her stomach doing this weird squirmy-flip. It was a pleasant squirmy feeling though.

“Sure,” Carmilla turned around again and kicked her boots off. “it’s no big deal,” She said as she climbed onto her bed. 

Laura hid a smile as she watched Carmilla reach for her book, only to be confused by the plate of brownies she found on top of it.

“What’s this?” Carmilla asked, glancing at Laura.

Laura shrugged a little. “I felt bad too,” She said, almost sheepishly. 

Camilla let out an inaudible sigh, her hand dropping to her pillow. “You shouldn’t feel bad,” She said, so quietly that Laura almost didn’t hear. 

“Come on, just eat them, Perry makes them from scratch and they’re amazing,” Laura prompted, smiling. 

Carmilla looked at her for a moment, a small smile quirking her lips before she looked away and picked up the little plate. She rested it on her knee and sunk into her pillows, opening her book with one hand and holding a brownie in the other. 

Laura busied herself with unwrapping the chocolate bar, and a soft snap sounded around the room as she broke a piece off with her teeth. She chewed quietly, her eyes still on the woman who sat across the room. Carmilla was...confusing, to Laura. She was quiet and didn’t mingle much with anybody in the house--Laura was pretty sure Carmilla had never had a real conversation with any of them except for with Laura herself--she was abrasive and rude, and yet, she seemed incredibly soft in her own strange way, considering the small gestures of both the chocolate and the charm. And that odd little playful glint in her eyes that showed up sometimes. Laura smiled a little. Maybe there was hope for coexistence yet.

“Take a picture, it’ll last longer,” Carmilla drawled, turning the page as she took another bite of her brownie. 

Laura jumped a little, startled from her thoughts. She ducked her head a little and shifted so that she wasn’t facing Carmilla as a blush rose to her cheeks at getting caught staring. “Bit of an unoriginal line there, don’t you think?” Laura asked, finishing off her chocolate. She stuck her hand in her sweatshirt pocket and wrapped it around the little box that held laFontaine’s Christmas gift, absently running her thumb back and forth across the already worn paper that covered it. She was going to have to find something new to put it in at this rate. Though the thought of giving it away suddenly had her gripping the little box a bit tighter. 

Carmilla grunted noncommittally. “Everything becomes unoriginal eventually,” She shrugged, flipping another page.

Laura furrowed her eyebrows. “Seems like a bleak outlook on things,” She said, looking over to Carmilla again.

“That’s life, buttercup,” She sighed, glancing at Laura. 

“Still,” Laura said with a small shrug, “I’d like to think that people can create their own ideas, their own world,”

“Oh, I’m not saying they can't, cutie, I’m just saying that things tend to be recycled as time goes on,” Carmilla closed her book and got up to put in back on her bookshelf. She stood there for a few moments as she selected another book, aware of Laura’s eyes on her back. “You might want to get some sleep, there. Can’t fight the forces of evil on no sleep,” She sighed, settling down on her bed again and picking up the second brownie.

“I--what?” Laura asked, her heart jumping into her throat. 

Carmilla looked up. “your Psychology professor? I hear he’s the incarnation of evil,” She said, smirking at the alarmed look on Laura’s face.

“Oh.” Laura said, breathing out a sigh. “Right. Yeah. He kinda is.” She glanced behind her and quickly shut off her owl lamp, and scooted down under the covers. “Night,” She said, her voice just a little too high to be considered normal. As she burrowed into her pillow, she swore she heard the barest hint of a chuckle coming from across the room.

\------

“So your dad actually gave you a baseball bat over summer break to bring back to college with you?” LaFontaine asked as Laura fished it our from under her bed the next evening. 

“LaF, we’re talking about the man who sent me to college with bear spray. I don’t really see how you’re surprised,” Laura grunted, getting to her feet. 

“Oh, I’m not,” they said, “I’m impressed,”

“It is convenient,” Dany said, hefting the field hockey stick she had grabbed from her room. 

“Highly,” JP said, walking into the room with a chair leg in hand. “lets go, the books aren’t so hostile just after dark, so it’s best we get in and out quickly, preferably before three AM rolls around because that’s when they really start to get snappy,”

“Ready?” Danny asked, looking at the three of them.

“Where’s Kirsch? And Perry?” Laura asked, her eyebrows pulling together. 

“I made Kirsch stay here and finish his Lit paper,” Danny said.

“And Perry opted not to come,” LaF said, “She’s taking this...slowly. Though she promised to have cookies ready for when we get back,” 

“Oh, okay,” Laura said with a shrug. She pulled on her jacket and her empty backpack--for the books-- and grabbed the bat from her bed. “let’s go,”

The four of them left the apartment and quickly made their way to the library just as the sun was going down. Few people were still out, making their way back to dorms and late lectures. The lights above the cobblestone paths were flicking on across campus, but the four stayed on the grass and out of the light. The library had closed a half hour ago, and the librarians didn’t take kindly to trespassers, so they’d have to sneak in and out, preferably with a minimal amount of people spotting them along the way. They hurried across the grounds and were soon standing beside the library, next to a window that JP swore was always unlocked. After shaking the latch a bit, JP popped the window open with a satisfied smile. 

“I’ve had to jump out this window more times than I care to recall,” JP said, opening it all the way. “Need a lift?” He asked, looking at Laura.

“Laura’s face scrunched up slightly, but she relented. “Yeah, thanks,” She said, placing her foot in his clasped hands as she gripped onto his shoulders. JP quickly boosted her and LaFontaine up to the window, and then followed them, followed by Danny.

Laura switched her flashlight on and looked around, shivering as a gust of wind blew in through the still open window. Dust swirled in the beam of light, and her brow knitted together at the sound of faintly chattering voices.

“What we’re looking for would most likely be in the occult section,” He said scratching his neck as she looked around, getting his bearings. “We have a rather sizable occult section, so this may take a while,”

“Lovely,” Danny deadpanned. “everybody else hearing voices too?”

“Yep,” LaFontaine said.

Laura hummed in agreement, her eyes still scanning the shelves that surrounded them. She’d been in the library many times, but to only certain sections. The Theopilus Library was huge, full row upon row upon row of old wooden shelves that were stained a dark, rich brown, housing hundreds upon hundreds of books ranging from seemingly ancient to brand new, leatherbound to paperback. The walls were paneled in the same dark wood that made up the floors and the shadows that stretched from the shelves by the window looked somehow darker than normal.

“That’s normal,” JP said dismissively, waving his hand as he pulled out his flashlight with the other. “the occult section is on the sixth floor, and from experience, it’s best to take the stairs at night. They may move but I heard about someone disappearing after taking an elevator after dark,”

“Uh, yeah, stairs,” Laura nodded, eyes wide. “good idea,”

“Lead the way, Jeep,” LaF grinned, gesturing forward.

JP nodded, taking the lead of their little group. 

As they moved through the shelves, the chattering and whispering grew louder, and then softer again, back and forth as they passed certain sections. JP instructed them to hang onto the railings tight when they reached the stairs, which were located in the center of the library, open to the rest if it, and it seemed to be going rather well until they neared the fifth floor. Knocking sounds echoed through the stairwell that crescendoed into a deep rumbling and then a cracking noise as the flight of stairs they were on dislodged itself from the wall and began to swing in a wide arc between two spots on the sixth floor landing. LaFontaien nearly tumbled off, but Danny caught them by the scruff of their collar at the last moment. 

“I was afraid of this!” JP said nervously, his confidence from earlier completely disappearing. “This is why I stopped working nights!”

“You _knew_ the stairs would be this volatile??” Danny asked, her eyes narrowed.

“Usually it isn’t so terrible this early on in the night!” JP said, his nervousness growing by the second. The stairway lurched violently, almost as if it was insulted by his words.

Laura looked up at the landing that the stairs were periodically swinging to, her brow furrowed. “Is that the sixth floor?” She called to JP, who was hanging onto the railing for dear life.

“Yes!” He said, eyes wide as the stairwell swung the other way again.

“We’re going to have to jump!” Laura said, scrambling up the stairs on her hands and knees.

_“What?!_ ” Danny yelled, whipping her head back to look at Laura.

“She’s right, we don’t know how long it’s going to take for the stairs to stop moving!” LaFontaine said, on their hands and knees, much like Laura.

“It might not stop because we’re _on_ them,” JP said, looking to the landing now, seemingly trying to figure out the best way to get to it.

Laura peered over the edge of the top stair and her stomach lurched, looking at the dizzying distance between them and the ground floor. She looked up again, and smiled though, noticing that there was only three or four feet between the stairs and the landing. They could make it. “Guys, it’s not that far, we can jump!” She called over the deafening groaning and clanking of the stairs. “If we go separately we’ll make it!”

“Laura, _no,_ ” Danny yelled, shaking her head vehemently.

“It’s the only way!” LaFontaine said as they scrambled up past to kneel beside Laura. They stood up, holding their arms out to steady themselves as the stairs swung closer to the landing once more. Right when the stairs and the landing was parallel, they leapt, and landed in a heap on the landing. They righted themselves after a moment and weed to the others. “Guys come on! it’ll be fine!”

JP steeled himself and jumped when the landing and the stairs were once again parallel, and landed in front LaFontaine, who grabbed him by the front of his shirt and helped him away from the edge to make room for Danny and Laura.

Laura prepared to jump next, but Danny grabbed her arm. “Laura wait, we should jump together,” 

“I can jump myself, you go!” Laura said, pulling her arm away from Danny and moving away to give her room.

“But your legs are shorter--”

Danny, _go!!_ ” Laura yelled, losing her patience.

Danny huffed, but turned and did as she was told, leaping from the stairs to the landing. The redhead quickly got to her feet after she landed and beckoned for Laura to follow. “Come on!”

Ignoring the uncomfortable flip of her stomach and the ache in her hands, Laura waited for the landing and the stairs to line up once more, and then jumped, landing squarely at Danny’s feet. Laura got to her feet before Danny could help her up and brushed herself off.

“Everybody okay?” LaFontaine asked, looking over at the other three. JP, Danny, and Laura all nodded as they tried to shake off the last of the adrenaline coursing through them.

“So where’s the occult section?” Danny asked. looking around. 

“This _is_ the occult section,” JP said, looking daunted.

“The _entire_ floor??” Danny asked incredulously, her eyes wide. 

“Afraid so,” JP said sheepishly.

“Well,” LaFontaine sighed, “it’s going to be a lo--” They stopped mid-sentence when a single light flicked on in the far corner of the sixth floor, lighting up one small section of shelves. they raised their eyebrows and looked at the others.

“That’s...convenient,” Laura said, slightly dumbfounded.

“Oh, so _now_ it decides to be helpful,” Danny sighed, exasperated.

“Hey, don’t say anything else to offend it,” LaFontaine said, glancing at Danny.

“Come on,” Laura said, glancing back at the others as she made her way towards the illumined section.

The four of them wove through the shelves, which were made of the same wood as all the other shelves, but one thing was different. _The shelves had grates over them._ Each shelf was covered by a deceptively delicate looking ornate brass gate, each sporting a lock on the right side, effectively trapping the books inside. Books that seemed to be...rattling. 

“So that’s not creepy,” LaFontaine muttered, peering around the shelves, the beam of their flashlight swinging to and fro. 

As they turned the corner and reached the shelf that was illuminated, the lock fell off the grate and it swung open with a groan that seemed much too loud for it’s size. Laura scanned the shelf, her eyebrows pulling together as her eyes fell on a familiar swirling pattern that was woven into the pattern of the grate. It was the same pattern that was etched into the stone archway on the quad, and also the same as the pattern she’d seen on the porch posts of Cochrane’s apartment. And on the little box that was in her pocket. She gripped the little box a bit tighter and scrunched her eyes closed, shaking her head when it looked like the pattern had began to move.

“Seems like the library was expecting you,” JP said, glancing back at Laura. Laura shrugged, not really knowing what to make of that. JP turned back to the shelf and sighed. “I guess we should start looking through these,”

“Wait,” Laura said, noticing a book that sat on the shelf, level with her head. It was leather-bound, like the rest, but it looked _ancient_. The leather was cracked and flaking, and bore scrapes that looked suspiciously like claw marks. Laura stepped forward and ran her fingers along the spine, biting her lip as she noticed that same symbol in gold at the top of the spine. “This one,” She said, tapping the spine. She glanced back at the others, and then back to the book. “this is the one we need,”

Danny looked at her curiously, but LaFontaine just shrugged, and smiled. “Okay,” they said, “grab it and lets get out of here,”

Laura nodded, and pulled it from the shelf, grunting as it’s full weight dropped in her hands. It had to be at lest four inches thick, and the cover looked to be about a foot by a foot and a half. Claw marks raked over the front cover much like they had on the spine, but the symbol was untouched, inlaid into the leather with gold leaf. Laura ran her thumb along it, and then leafed through the pages, not quite hearing LaFontaine’s comment of “guys, is it me or is the rattling being louder?” She was jarred from her train of thought when she felt a hand on her upper arm. 

“We have to go, _now_ ,” JP said, looking frantic. 

Laura’s head snapped up as she realized that the rattling was getting louder, as was the whispering and the clanking. It reverberated around the shelves and assaulted their eardrums in an eerie, abrasive cacophony that sent uncomfortable shivers down Laura spine that screamed _danger._ Laura scrambled to get her backpack off, and shoved the book into it, and swung it onto her back as the four of them raced down the isles, makeshift weapons in hand as they swung their flashlights around frantically, trying to find their way out. 

They didn’t have time to feel relieved when they reached the stairs to find that they weren’t moving anymore. The four of them barreled down the stairs as the skittering and the clanking and the whispering got closer. Laura made the mistake of looking behind her and shrieked, watching as a cloud of airborne books and paper and index cards barreled after them. She pushed herself to go faster, and silently thanked her tiny frame for allowing her to be quick and nimble when she wanted to be. 

The whispering became screaming as they hit the third floor, and Danny glanced back, her eyes widening as she watched a thick tome come flying towards Laura’s head. 

“Laura duck!!!” Danny screamed, gripping her field hockey stick with both hands. Laura’s adrenaline spiked as she ducked, and above her, Danny’s field hokey stick cracked into the book, deflecting it. Danny grabbed ahold of Laura’s arm and pulled her along as they tried to catch up with the others. 

“Almost there!!” JP called from ahead of Laura and Danny. He swung his chair leg, tearing through a cloud of pages that flew out of the dark at his right. LaFontaine smacked a few books away with their crowbar, and yanked him away from the pages that were intent upon carving him full of paper cuts. 

As Laura and Danny skidded around the corner, right on LaFontaine and JP’s heels, the angry flurry of index cards and papers drew closer from behind, bearing down on them. Laura glanced back and gasped as one sliced her cheek open. She ignored the stinging in her cheek and sped down a short isle of shelves, where at the end, their salvation awaited. LaFontaine had just disappeared through the window by the time Laura and Danny caught up, and Danny scrambled to help Laura through, who would have protested if there wasn’t a horde of murderous books on their heels. Not even a second after Danny slipped through the window and yanked it closed, the screaming grew louder, and the horde of airborne books slammed into the window one after the other, rattling the window frame and threatening to shatter the glass. 

Laura realized that this was the second time she’d wound up flat on her back due to...whatever it was that was going on. She was still a little unclear about it. She stared up at the night sky as she listened to the banging and rattling of the window get quieter and quieter until it stopped altogether. 

\-------

“I _knew_ it was a terrible idea,” Perry huffed as she flitted about the living room with tissues and disinfectant, taking care of their injuries one at a time. 

“Oh com on, it sounded badass!” Kirsch said excitedly. “An that’s a pretty gnarly scrape there, little hottie,”

“Thanks,” Laura said absently, flipping a page in the book they’d taken from the library. Perry had cleaned up the scrape on her cheek, and through it still stung, it was shallow and hopefully would heal without scarring. LaFontaine was currently getting cleaned up while Laura sat on the couch, now changed into a pair of sweatpants, and was pouring over the book with JP. Danny was in the kitchen reheating leftovers for everyone, and Carmilla was nowhere to be found. Which, admittedly, was a relief since Laura hadn’t figured out how to tell her about this whole mess yet, but Laura felt a little...off. it’d only been a couple weeks, but she’d sort of grown accustomed to Carmilla’s often quiet presence. Sometimes Laura forgot she was there, as if the girl’s absence was louder than her presence. 

Almost as if she...missed her...?

Laura quickly shoved that thought away. It was ridiculous. She hardly knew the girl.

“Part of me can’t believe this book is in english,” JP muttered under his breath, eliciting a snort from Laura.

“Me either,” She said, flipping another page. “I guess we deserve one break, right?”

“I would think so, after our little adventure tonight,” He chuckled, leaning closer to the book. Perry had already taken care of him as well, cleaning up the few scrapes on his arms and one on his forehead. 

“So what are we looking for?” LaFontaine asked, plopping down on Laura’s other side after taking the plate Danny offered them.

“Anything, really,” Laura shrugged. “anything that will shed some light on...this.” She said, gesturing vaguely with her free hand. She still wasn’t even sure what to call it. 

“What? you apparently being some kind of _chosen one_ like a terrible young adult novel?” LaFontaine snickered.

Laura rolled her eyes. “Shut up,” She said, flipping to the front of the book in search of some sort of table of contents. 

\-------

A couple hours later, the six of them had collectively worked their way through almost a dozen cups of tea, and half the book. Everything that Chochorane, Vordenberg, Mattie and Theo had told Laura was reflected there, which eased Laura’s mind a little. There was a tiny part of her that still thought that this was some elaborate joke, but that part was rapidly dwindling with every page turned. The sentient books in the library helped cut down that notion too. 

They didn’t seem to be finding much they didn’t already know, until one word caught Laura’s eye.

_Vampires._

“ _Vampires_ serve the Dark?” Laura said, her mind flying back to her encounter with the rider. Lilita had leered at her right before rearing her horse and galloping off, and something white had glinted in her mouth, too long for normal teeth. “She had fangs...oh my god,” Laura whined running a hand down her face. 

“Who had fangs?” LaFontaine asked, looking up from the notes they were jotting down in their notebook.

“The Rider, the one who chased me,” Laura said, siting down again on the couch with a fresh cup of cocoa. “I think Chochorane said her name was Lilita,”

“Yes, here she is,” JP said, pointing to the book. On the page was an illustration in inks and watercolors, it looked like, of a shrouded figure surrounded by crows. She had a wicked smile plastered on her face, her fangs glinting in the light the artist had imagined. “it says here that she’s been with the Dark since the dawning of recorded time, it seems. Nobody knows exactly when,” he glanced up at Laura. “the Dark had tried recruiting humans first, but found them to be too weak, with too short a lifespan, so when they found vampires they lunged at the chance. They found Lilita and the rest is history, it seems,”

“Oh, great,” Laura said, voice dripping with sarcasm. 

LaFontaine furrowed their eyebrows and looked to the kitchen for a moment before getting up and making their way to the fridge. The returned a few minutes later holding a clear glass and Carmilla’s soy milk carton. 

“Uh, guys?” They said, catching everyone’s attention. 

“What is it, LaFontaine?” Perry asked, catching LaFontaine’s worried expression.

LaFontaine set the glass down on the coffee table and poured out the contents of the soy milk carton. Perry shrieked and Laura, Danny, Kirsch and JP all scooted back, looking disgusted as thick, red liquid poured out of the carton.

“Is that...?” Danny asked, her nose scrunched up.

“Yep,” LaFontaine said, setting the carton down. “I don’t think Lilita is the only vampire we have to worry about,”


	11. Chapter 10

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Carmilla tells her story.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey lovelies!! ITS BEEN SO LONG AND I AM SO SORRY. And I know I say that every time. I'm sorry. This fic is just really hard to write, and I didn't realize that it's be _so_ much of a slow burn until I actually started writing it, but good news, Hollstein gets going this chapter!! 
> 
> As always, thank you all so much for sticking with me on this despite how slow it's going. every comment and kudo means the world to me. make sure to check my TDIRAU page for the additional content/music that goes with this chapter--there's a lot of visuals for this chapter that are really important. 
> 
> Also, I'm working on a full playlist of all the music that goes with this fic to post when the fic is complete--does anyone know of a streaming site that I can make a playlist on with annotations for each track? Can you do that on Spotify? I was going to use 8tracks, but their restrictions only allow a max two songs per artist, and I've gone over that. If anybody knows anywhere that isn't as strict I'd be really grateful :)
> 
> please let me know if there are any typos or mistakes--I didn't spend a ton of time editing this, so there might be a few in there.

“It wasn’t a prank the first time,” Laura said, her eyes wide as she stared at the glass full of blood.

“My money’s on no,” LaFontaine said, looking down at it as well. “and I’ll bet it wasn’t pig’s blood either. I can take a sample to the lab and test it to make sure, but all things considered, I’d say that’s probably human blood,”

Laura’s heart sank as she put the pieces together. The incredible strength, the more than strange hours Carmilla kept--sleeping well into the afternoon and then coming into their room and flopping down into bed at six in the morning. The fact that when she spoke she sometimes seemed a little _beyond_ just insightful and well read. How even though she’d seen Carmilla eat occasionally, the only thing she seemed to consume on a regular basis was the contents of the soy milk carton. And that charm. As much as Laura appreciated it, and as much as it really worked, she still wondered exactly _where_ Carmilla had gotten her hands on something like that. She figured what with all the leather and the eyeliner that Carmilla might be into the occult and whatnot, and that was fine, Laura wasn’t bothered by that. But she’d never considered the fact that Carmilla might actually _be_ the occult. 

Laura set her tea down on the coffee table and ran a hand through her hair as she tried to figure out exactly _why_ this felt like such a blow. She’d known Carmilla for less than a month. Hell, she didn’t even really _know_ Carmilla. Despite living together they were barely acquaintances. Talking occasionally, but never for long. 

But the charm.

And the chocolate. 

And how Carmilla started staying in at night more often after Laura was chased by those creepy frat boy-golems. 

How it had, Laura finally admitted to herself, made her feel a little safer at night.

That had to have meant something, right?

Unless...

Unless it’d all been a rouse to get Laura to start trusting her. To start thinking she was good. Some agent of the Dark to get on naïve little Laura’s good side and weasel the signs away from her. Or kidnap her and bring her to the Rider.

Laura didn’t realize her jaw was clenching until she was shaken from her thoughts by Perry and Danny bickering. 

“Maybe we should try and, um, deescalate,” Perry said, trying not to look at the blood that still sat on the coffee table. 

“ _Deescalate?!_ ” Danny exclaimed, her eyebrows shooting up. “We are living with a _vampire_. Laura is rooming with a _vampire._ That’s alarming enough without the distinct possibility that she’s also one of the people trying to hurt Laura.”

“So what do we do?” Kirsch asked, looking utterly lost. 

“We could interrogate her,” LaFontaine suggested with a shrug. “see exactly what kind of freak it is we’re dealing with,”

“Oh yeah? How?” Danny snapped, crossing her arms. 

“Well, she’s pretty predictable in terms of her routine, right?” They asked, looking at Laura.

Laura nodded. “Yeah, she comes back around five pretty much every day,” 

LaFontaine nodded. “Okay, great, so when are we all back here by five?”

JP thought for a moment, counting as he tapped his index finger against his bottom lip. “Friday,” he finally said, looking back to the group. 

LaFontaine nodded. “Okay, so we can all wait up in Laura’s room about the time Carmilla comes back, and when she walks in, we jump her,” They said, looking rather pleased with themselves.

“And what exactly are we supposed to do until then, hm?” Danny asked. “Or are you forgetting that Laura is sharing her room with a blood-sucking fiend?”

Laura shoved down her dislike of Danny’s phrasing. Carmilla was working with the Dark. She _was_ a fiend, Laura told herself. “Well, she hasn’t tried to hurt me, and, honestly, I don’t think she will,” Danny gave her a look, causing Laura to recoil slightly as her eyebrows puled together. “If Lilita wants me, I’m assuming she wants me alive, right? Carmilla hurting me wouldn’t be very helpful towards that goal,”

“She does have a point,” LaFontaine said, glancing up at Perry and smiling at her as Perry handed them a mug of cocoa. 

“And, acting as though we still don’t know anything for a few days can only work in our favor,” JP said.

“Oh, it’ll give us more time to, like, plan, right?” Kirsch asked, his eyes wide as he looked around at the five of them. 

LaFontaine nodded, smiling. “We can study the book some more, maybe flush out some more lines of defense,”

Danny looked around the room, looking for someone who would agree with her, agree that letting Laura stay in that room with Carmilla for two more days was far too dangerous. She sighed, running a hand through her hair when no one spoke up to agree with her. “Fine.” She said in a clipped voice. “I’m going to go whittle some stakes.” 

The group dispersed soon after Danny left the room, and Laura headed upstairs with a mug of cocoa in one hand, and the book in the other. She wanted to keep it close, figuring she could hide it in her bookshelf or under her bed or something. She breathed a sigh of relief when she toed the door to her room open only to find it empty, just the way she’d left it. Carmilla wasn’t back yet, which she was grateful for. Anger simmered low in her chest and she just didn’t want to see her. As strange as their interaction was, she’d believed Camilla to be a good person. Annoying, yes, very much so, but good, nonetheless. But now it was clear that it’d all been a lie. 

Laura gritted her teeth as her thoughts circled back to the little ‘nice’ things Carmilla had done as she placed the book in one of the boxes under her bed. She had no proof that Carmilla had been staying in more at night for her benefit after being chased by the frat-boy golems, but the card, and the chocolate, and that stupid charm--

Laura froze. 

The charm. 

She looked down at her wrist where it was still tied, her eyebrows pulling together. What if this was some part of the trap too? Something to lure her into a false sense of security? Or some weird creepy mind control thing without the brain parasites? Laura’s nose scrunched up as she scrambled to pull the charm off, flinging it onto her headboard. She stood there for a moment, frozen. She didn’t _feel_ any different. Laura rolled her eyes. Maybe the charm was just some stupid placebo. 

Sighing, Laura pulled back her covers and crawled into bed, flicking her owl lamp off as she laid down.

\-------

Laura jerked awake hours later with a gasp, her brow slick with sweat as trembling hands gripped her blankets. Laura’s eyes darted around the room as she took in her surroundings, bouncing from the floor, to her own bed, to the windows, to Carmilla’s empty bed, and then to the ceiling, where she half expected to find Carmilla hanging from the beams like a bat. She let out a shaky breath when she saw that everything was just how it she’d left it before going to sleep.

No ice. No broken windows and bashed window frames. She couldn’t see her breath. No black smoke. No blank-faced friends who didn’t move or try to fight when the black smoke crawled down their throats. No blackness rising like an ocean and swallowing her whole.

No fearful brown eyes amidst black smoke. 

Laura ran a shaking hand down her face, crawled out of bed, and headed towards the bathroom. She shivered in her tank top as the chilly air hit her clammy skin once she was out from under her covers, and her toes curled a little when her bare feet met the cold hardwood floor. She flipped the light on when she reached the bathroom and turned the water on, but yelped and recoiled when she put her hand under the ice cold water. She waited until she saw steam rising, and then put her hand under it again, sighing at the warmth. 

She felt frozen from the inside out, like some insidious darkness had seeped inside her bones and lined her insides with frost. She squeezed her eyes shut, trying desperately to banish the images of exploding windowpanes and crunching metal and blank eyes and choking blackness from her mind. She splashed her face with the hot water and gripped the sides of the sink, white knuckled, until she felt herself begin calm down. 

Her head shot up from where it was bowed over the sink when she heard the front door close softly downstairs

_Carmilla._

Laura quickly dried her hands and her face, and raced back into her room, pausing for a split second when she saw the batwing charm on her headboard.

_“It might help you sleep better, too,”_

It had. She’d been sleeping like a baby since Carmilla gave it to her.

Laura snatched it off her headboard before she could put too much thought into it and slipped it over her wrist. She hopped into bed and yanked the covers over herself, pushing her face into her pillow and squeezing her eyes shut at the images that still played behind her eyelids.

\------

Carmilla closed the door softly, looking up as she heard hurried footsteps and a quick heartbeat above her. She cautiously headed up the stairs, and made her way to the bedroom door, finding that it was open partway. That was odd. Laura always closed the door. Carmilla opened the door all the way and quietly stepped inside. She could hear Laura’s erratic heartbeat and her uneven breath, and she pulled her bottom lip in between her teeth in worry.

“Laura?” She called quietly, her hand still on the doorknob. 

Laura’s eyes shot open, and she fought to keep her breathing steady. She heard the floor creek behind her as Carmilla shifted on her feet. 

Carmilla bit her lip again and then slowly closed the door after a moment of just standing there, and made her way over to her bed. She set her backpack down on the floor and stripped down to her teeshirt and underwear, quietly dropping her clothes onto the floor. She knew Laura was awake, but she still didn’t want to disturb her. She glanced over to Laura’s bed once more and paused for a moment, watching the somewhat steady rise and fall of Laura’s back before she climbed into her own bed and burrowed into her covers with a sigh. 

\------

It was four thirty in the evening on Friday, and all six of them were in Laura’s room. 

“You sure she’ll be back soon?” Danny asked from her place by the door, a stake in hand.

Laura nodded. “Yeah, give or take a few minutes, I guess,”

“Seems to be her only routine,” Perry said, her voice a tad bit clipped. This whole situation had her wound rather tight. Or at least tighter than normal.

“Everything’s going to be fine, Perr,” LaFontaine said reassuringly, rubbing circles into the small of her back. “we’ve got a plan,”

“Oh, a very well thought out plan,” Perry snapped back sarcastically, “we wait in her room to ambush her with stakes and strings of garlic, all the while we don’t know what kinds of powers she possesses,” Reality had sunk in for Perry the day after the library trip, and as much as she didn’t want to believe it, she couldn’t deny it either. She was rather set on not having to like it, though.

“We prepared to the best of our ability,” JP reasoned, “the book wasn’t very detailed,” 

JP was right. Over the last two days, he, Laura, and LaFontaine had poured over the book, and hadn’t come up with much in the way of defense tactics when it came to Carmilla, or any vampires, so it seemed. And what they did come up with was so typically _pop culture_ that they questioned it at first.

“I don’t like that we don’t know what we’re up against,” Danny said, keeping her voice low as she listened for the tell tale sound of the door downstairs. 

“I don’t either but It’s all we’ve got right now,” Laura said, feeling strangely agitated, and not just on edge because of the situation. She didn’t like this. There was something in her gut clawing at her, telling her the was _wrong wrong wrong_ , but at the same time, the evidence didn’t lie. She gritted her teeth an attempted to tamp down the feelings screaming at her.

The bat wing charm felt heavy around her wrist. 

Danny stiffened, hearing the _click_ of the deadbolt sliding open downstairs. “She’s here,” She whispered.

\------

Carmilla sighed as she closed the door behind her, and slid her sparse keychain back into the pocket of her leather jacket. She turned to walk upstairs, but paused when she noticed that there wasn’t anyone in the living room. Her eyes narrowed as they swept across the living room and he kitchen. Both were empty. Well, except for Kirsch’s cat. Carmilla eyed the tabby, who eyes her back suspiciously, and then hissed.

Carmilla raised an eyebrow, wholly unimpressed. “If you only knew how much bigger I am than you.” She muttered, and then turned towards the stairs. Her steps slowed though when she reached the landing, and a look of confusion settled on her face. Why wasn’t anyone milling around like they always did? Carmilla concentrated as she stood there, and counted six heartbeats coming from the room she shared with Laura. Dread settled in the pit of her stomach. She knew abut the library trip a few days ago, and she’d hoped that they hadn’t found anything, or at least anything that would expose her. She’d been trying to figure out how to keep the Rider and Laura apart, but she couldn’t find it in herself to be anything but merely _annoying_ to Laura. Nothing worse. her original plan had been to be a terror and drive everyone absolutely insane so they’d leave, but all of that flew out the window when she saw Laura, and she was afraid that it was going to bite her in the ass now.

Carmilla steeled herself, walked forward towards the bedroom door and turned the handle.

“Not another step, bloodsucker!” Danny growled, lunging towards Carmilla as soon as the door opened.

Carmilla stumbled back to avoid the stake that was gripped in Danny’s hand, and acted on instinct, figuring her cover was blown already. Past Danny, Carmilla saw Laura, who was looking conflicted and angry, but Carmilla didn’t get a chance to process her expression before she disappeared in a plume of black smoke. 

Danny eyes widened momentarily, but then her face hardened again as she slipped her free hand through the smoke that still lingered. “Where is she?!” She growled, spinning around in the hallway as the others rushed out of the bedroom. 

“Where’d she go??” LaFontaine said, looking around as well. 

“She disappeared!” Danny said, “Just, poof! Into--”

“Smoke,” Laura said, finishing her sentence. “black smoke,” She said again, although to herself this time, in a whisper. 

\-------

“You can’t seriously be considering staying in there by yourself tonight,” Danny said, disbelief in her voice. “what if she comes back?!”

“Danny, I’ll be fine, I have a stake, and garlic, and honestly I really don’t think she’ll be coming back here tonight,” Laura said bringing her plate from dinner to the sink.

“She’s a god damn _monster_ , Laura, you can’t seriously think that I’m going to let you go in there by yourself!”

“ _Let_ me?!” Laura shot back, “I’m twenty years old, Danny! I’m an adult, you’re not going to _‘let’_ me do anything! It’s my choice!”

\-------

Laura was sitting in bed with a book, but she wasn’t really seeing the words on the page. She was still fuming from earlier, on top of everything her mind was whirring about. She was just tired. And overwhelmed. And that nightmare from the night before was still grating on her. She couldn’t get the image of those eyes out of her head. 

Laura groaned and snapped her book shut, tossing it onto the bed. It wasn’t helping. She was about to get up to get her laptop when a plume of black smoke materialized by her desk chair. She yelped and scrambled back across her bed, blindly reaching for the stake Danny had left in her room.

“Hey, hey,” Carmilla said, stepping forward out of the cloud of smoke with her hands up, eyes pleading. “I’m not going to hurt you, I swear,”

Laura eyed her suspiciously, but some of the tension left her body. She believed her, for whatever reason. “What are you doing here?” She asked quietly. 

“I came to talk to you,” Carmilla said, slowly lowering her hands. “to explain, I guess,”

“Why not talk to all of us?” Laura asked, still holding onto the stake, though her grip was loose.

“Do you really think Xena would listen to me?” Carmilla asked, raising an eyebrow.

“And you think I would?” Laura asked, sitting up from where she was leaned over. 

Carmilla was quiet for a moment, studying her. “There’s...something about you,” She murmured, her eyes flicking back up to meet Laura’s. 

Laura’s eyes flicked to the door, and she bit her lip. “Okay, but if you want to talk, we have to go somewhere else. Danny’s room is on the other side of my wall and I don’t want her hearing anything just yet,”

Carmilla nodded, and thought for a moment. “Put a sweater on, I know somewhere we can go,”

Laura nodded hesitantly and got up, reaching for her sweatshirt as she did so. She slipped her feet into her boots after pulling the sweatshirt over her head, and then looked to Carmilla, who was waiting quietly. “Uh...lead the way, I guess,” Laura said, still looking apprehensive, though at the same time...softer. 

Carmilla led her quietly out into the hall, her footsteps barely audible as they walked down it. At the end of the hall, Carmilla reached up and pulled the latch open that led to the roof. “Ladies first,” She said, gesturing for Laura to go up first.

Laura eyed the rickety ladder warily, causing Carrmilla to sigh.

“I promise it’s safe,” She said, “I’ve used it before,”

Laura glanced at her, and then stepped onto the ladder. “Is that where you go at night?” 

Carmilla smiled a little. “Sometimes,”

Laura gave her a curious look and then ascended the ladder, followed by Carmilla, who pulled up the hatch behind them. 

“Oh...wow...” Laura breathed once she straightened up, her eyes sweeping across the whole of Silas’ campus. 

Carmilla stood a few paces behind her--not wanting to get too close and scare her--and smiled a tiny bit. She looked up at the clear sky, relaxing a little at the sight of the stars. 

Laura turned around to find Carmilla with her face to the starts, and was quiet for a moment before she spoke. “You like the stars?” She asked, her hands in her pockets. She didn’t know what possessed her to leave the stake downstairs in her room, but she felt that she didn’t need it.

“Very much,” Carmilla said, her eyes tracing the constellations. “it’s comforting, how small we are in comparison. All the lives we’ve led...people we’ve been. Nothing to that light,”

Laura felt the weight of Carmilla’s words settle on her shoulders, and realized that she’d meant it literally. How many lives _had_ Carmilla lived?

“So you’re a vampire,” Laura blurted out with her usual grace.

Carmilla sighed and nodded, turning towards Laura. “I am,”

“Okay,” Laura said, pulling her hands from her pockets and running a hand through her hair. “I’d say that’s crazy if my life hadn’t been devolving into the stuff of nightmares lately. I need you to explain _everything_ to me if you want me to believe you and not have my friends stake you.” Laura grimaced, not even liking saying the words. “What is your role with the Dark, what does the Dark _want_ , aside from these signs everyone keeps demanding from me?” She paused a moment, taking a breath. “And if you’re working with them, why don’t you want to hurt me?” 

“The stuff of nightmares,” Carmilla echoed bitterly. “it’s only going to get worse, sweetheart,”

“Well that’s comforting,” Laura sighed. “please, just tell me what’s going on, tell me your side of the story,”

“My side of the story?” Carmilla said, in her voice a mix of bitterness and shock. She sighed and sat down at the edge of the roof, dangling her feet over the side. “Well buckle up, creampuff, it’s going to be a long night.”

Laura rolled her eyes at the nickname, but sat dow near her all the same.

“I was born in Styria in 1680, daughter of a Count,” Carmilla began, twisting the zipper pull of her jacket between her fingers. “I was fairly sheltered, not paying much attention to the world outside my own until I was murdered during the ball my family held for my eighteenth birthday,” 

_”Murdered?”_ Laura blurted out, her eyes wide. 

Carmilla gave her a look and Laura fell silent with a huff.

“I was murdered, but Maman, The Rider, plucked me from the impending jaws of death at the last moment, raising me as a vampire,” Carmilla continued. “she was looking for...recruits, I suppose, pretty faces that could weasel into where she needed and get the job done. I was promising, I guess. I loved that life for a long time. It was grand, dazzling....a feast, a ball every night, being able to lose control and do all the things that I would _never_ be permitted to do as an aspiring Countess. I had my choice of women and the freedom to act upon my desires, champaign flowed freely...”

“It all sounds very...Morrison,” Laura commented.

Carmilla gave her a rueful look and chuckled. “If Morrison enjoyed killing the women he slept with, maybe.” She murmured. “The rush and the bloodlust and the lack of control was all well and good, for a long time. There wasn’t much for The Rider’s children to do for many years, except grow older and stronger and more aware of our new selves. You can imagine it takes a while. But in 1872, Maman had a task for me. She had never stopped searching for the signs through all of the balls and the parties and the excess, and she thought she might have finally come across one. It’s said that only the Seeker can sense a sign, but she never stopped looking anyways. There was a family, here in Styria, who was a great supporter of the Light. The father collected all manner of artifacts that pertained to the light, and Maman was confident that one of the signs was among his collection for safe keeping,” Carmilla paused for a moment, fidgeting with the buckle on her jacket and clearly becoming more and more uncomfortable as the story went on. She took a breath and continued, though. “She chose me for the task. We rode near their manor in a carriage, and staged a crash. Being the gentleman that he was, the father of that family took me in, allowing me to stay until Maman could return and collect me. I was to grow close to his daughter and gain the family’s trust, and then get my hands on the sign.” 

Carmilla stopped again, and Laura could tell that it was growing harder and harder for her to tell her story. Something inside Laura made her want to scoot closer to Carmilla, but she refrained.

“His daughter’s name was Ell,” Carmilla said after a moment or two. “she was eighteen when I met her, somewhat naïve, but curious about the world around her. We did grow close, like Maman had wanted, but...none of it was a lie. We talked late into the night about all manner of things....she was...beautiful, in a quiet, airy way. Caring, and empathetic, and charitable, bright, and sweet.”

“You were in love with her,” Laura said quietly. It wasn’t a question.

“I was,” Carmilla nodded, her eyes cloudy and far away. “I asked her to run away with me, begged her to. And she said yes,” A melancholic smile graced her lips for a fleeting moment. “but Maman was having none of that. She was already angry that I couldn’t find the sign. It wasn’t in his collection, and she was angry at my failure, and when she found out about Ell...her rage only grew. She found out where Ell and I were to meet, and she beat me to her. She told Ell about me, what I was, and Ell was horrified, disgusted. She screamed at me to leave, to get way from her, called me a monster. She began to run but as she did, Maman caught her around the throat and snapped her neck.” Carmilla took a breath. “her blue eyes were still open when she hit the ground.”

That tug pulled at Laura again, and she moved closer this time, tentatively resting a hand on Carmilla’s knee. Carmilla looked up, her deep brown eyes confused. Laura knew ‘I’m sorry’ or ‘that’s terrible’ wouldn’t help in the slightest, so she just remained quiet and gently squeezed her knee before letting her hand slide off it. 

Carmilla drew her arms closer to herself, missing the fleeting warmth of Laura’s hand. “usually her price for disobedience was to lose one’s fangs,” She explained. “she would rip them out and set them in silver as a trophy, called a Charivari. Then, it meant a slow and humiliating death by starvation, but as time went on and medicine advanced, with the advent of blood bags it became purely symbolic. She keeps the teeth the collects on the underside of her cloak.” 

Laura thought back to the clacking sound she’d heard when the wing ruffled The Rider’s cloak, and a shiver went down her spine. 

Carmilla swallowed hard. “I was too special for that fate. I was her _glittering girl_ , after all. No, she waned to keep me alive, but imprisoned. She put me in a coffin, full to the brim with Ell’s blood and buried me, so that I may waste away my long centuries in the dark.”

Laura watched her with wide eyes, her lips parted in shock. Her insides revolted at the idea of Carmilla being locked away in a tiny dark prison, and aside from the fact that that fate was absolutely _horrifying_ , she didn’t understand. She didn’t understand why the hurt that Carmilla endured was making her want to scream.

“I was freed, though, the bombs of World War Two breaking me out of my tomb,” Carmilla continued softly. “I stayed hidden, for a while, after I became acclimated to the world again. But Maman found me in Paris in the nineteen fifties,”

“So...so you just went back to helping her?” Laura asked, confused.

Carmilla shook her head. “No, I played along, to a point, but I’d make things harder for her where I could, intentionally losing things items or information...doing what I did with you,” She added quietly.

“You mean...staying in at night after I got attacked...?” Laura asked.

Carmilla nodded. “That, and...other things. Being annoying, being mean, or trying to,”

“You’ve been annoying, yeah, but I wouldn’t call it mean,” Laura said, “at least not to me,”

Carmilla huffed out a small laugh. “That had been my original plan, you know. I came here with the goal to be a terror to you and your friends, to be so terrible that I’d drive you all away, make you leave so you’d be...safe,”

“What changed that?” Laura asked, leaning towards a little with her hands in her sweatshirt pocket.

“I don’t really know,” Carmilla said, shaking her head a little. “I had it all planned out, but something happened, when I saw you. I just...couldn’t make myself be horrible to you,” Carmilla stared down at her lap, her brows furrowed.

“So you helped in other ways, didn’t you?” Laura asked. “The charm?”

Carmilla nodded, her eyes still downcast. “I knew you weren’t thinking clearly, or sleeping. I could see it on your face, and I knew it was a result of your...abilities setting in,”

“Wha does the Dark want?” Laura asked again, her eye worried.

Carmilla was quiet for a moment, looking out over the campus. “Maman is ancient and terrible, and the beasts who made her what she is even more so,” She said, “The Dark, Maman, she wants to destroy every trace of Light on this earth and blanket everything we know in darkness and ice and frost so that they, and only they, may thrive while the rest of us either parish or fall to their control.” She glanced at Laura. “She’s never told me what the goal is, but that’s what I’ve gathered over my long years by her side. She can transform into a flock of crows, and she commands flocks as well...you’re already intimately aquatinted with her golems,”

“Anything else?” Laura probed.

Carmilla sighed and shook her head. “When it comes to her, that’s knowing a lot, even for someone who’s been around her for over three hundred years,”

Laura nodded and took a steadying breath. “So you’re really against her?” She asked, her eyes hopeful.

Carmilla nodded. “Yes,”

“You want to help us?”

Carmilla nodded again. “Yes,”

Laura smiled a little in relief, nodding. She burrowed down into her sweater a little more and blew out a breath, resisting the urge to chatter her teeth.

Carmilla looked over at her, her eyes concerned. “You’re cold,” She said, “let’s go inside,”

Laura nodded in agreement and got to her feet as Carmilla did the same. 

Carmilla moved to walk back to the hatch that led back into the house, but Laura reached out and grabbed her wrist gently before she could. Carmilla looked at her curiously, her eyes flicking down to Laura’s had around her wrist, and then back up to meet her eyes. 

“Thank you,” Laura said, her eyes soft.

The corner of Carmilla’s lips pulled up in a small, brief smile as she nodded. “Come on,” She said softly.

Laura descended the ladder first, and then Carmilla, and once the hatch was closed, the two quietly tiptoed back to the room. Carmilla walked over to her bookshelf, her fingers running over the leather and paper spines as she deliberated. 

“You’re not going to sleep?” Laura asked as she took off her shoes.

“I’s still a little early for me,” Carmilla said quietly. She glanced back at Laura before turning back to the shelf and selecting a book. 

Laura pulled her sweatshirt off and crawled under the covers as Carmilla made her way back to her bed, pulling a lighter from her pocket as she picked up one of her candles. “Carmilla?” She asked, after a moment.

“Hmm?” Carmilla hummed over the flick and hiss of the lighter.

“Maybe the reason why you couldn’t be mean to me is the same reason why I trusted you even before you told me everything,” Laura said quietly, looking to where the flame of the lighter illuminated Carmilla’s face. 

Carmilla looked up to see the small smile Laura offered. 

“Maybe,” She nodded, returning it.


	12. Chapter 11

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hey everyone! I hope everybody's doing good :) sorry for an especially long time between chapters here, I had some wicked writer's block with this AU, so I was working on some others in the meantime. This chapter actually came out a little shorter than usual--I has to rearrange some things, and wound up moving a chunk of this chapter to the next one.
> 
> Don't forget to check my TDIRAU page for extras that go with this chapter! thank you all so so so much for sticking with me and being so patient, and as always, thnaks for reading!

“Carmilla,”

Carmilla groaned, trying to shrug off the weight she felt on her shoulder.

A huff sounded from above Carmilla. “ _Carmilla_ ,”

“ _What?_ ” Carmilla grunted, opening one eye a crack and glaring at the little brunette that stood over her.

“We need to get up,” Laura urged, tugging on Carmilla’s covers a bit.

“Says who?” Carmilla huffed, easily yanking her covers back from Laura’s comparatively weak grasp.

“I do,” Laura said, scowling with her hands on her hips. “Carmilla come on, we need to talk to everyone and get our plan going,”

“And this whole thing can’t wait until later after I’ve had an adequate amount of sleep?” Carmilla growled.

“ _No_.” Laura said. “Carm, we’re kind of on a deadline here, in case you didn’t know.”

Carmilla looked up at Laura, quirking an eyebrow at Laura’s nickname for her. “Fine.” She said shortly, after a moment’s hesitation. “ _Please_ tell me we haven’t run out of coffee,”

\------

“I don’t see how this is going to end in me not getting staked,” Carmilla grumbled, trudging along down the hall behind Laura.

“Oh hush, you said you wanted to help us,” Laura said, glancing back a her. 

“Yes, but I’d also like to stay alive,” Carmilla snapped. “or as alive as I can be,” She added after a moment.

“It’ll be fine,” Laura said, and Carmilla raised an eyebrow. 

“Oh, sure, it’s not like the jolly green giant tried to stake me last night,” Carmilla said in a hushed voice as they neared the stairs. 

“We thought you were evil then,” Laura said dismissively. 

“And they suddenly don't?” Carmilla questioned. 

The two descended the stairs, and their bickering was promptly interrupted by a shriek, followed by a scuffle.

“Laura, get away from her!” Danny cried, dropping her cereal spoon into her bowl and snatching a stake from the counter.

“Here we go,” Carmilla sighed, rolling her eyes. 

“Danny, stop!” Laura said, her eyes wide as he held her hands out, stepping in front of Carmilla, and Carmilla raised an eyebrow as she did so. “She’s not going to hurt anyone, put the stake down!”

“She’s not going to hurt anyone?!” Danny laughed humorlessly. Behind her, Perry clutched a stake to her chest as LaFontaine stepped in front of her. Behind the counter, JP’s eyes darted back and forth from Danny to Laura, and Kirsch looked utterly lost. “Laura you said it yourself, she’s one of them!”

“I was wrong, okay?” Laura said desperately, lowering her hands slowly. “We talked last night, she wants to help. She doesn’t want to hurt us. She doesn’t like the Rider any more than we do,”

“How do we know she isn’t lying?” Danny demanded, “How do we know she hasn’t brainwashed you??”

Carmilla scoffed and rolled her eyes as she crossed her arms. “I can’t do that, beanstalk.”

“Oh yeah? And what reason do I have to trust your word?” Danny snapped.

“You don’t have to trust her, just trust me,” Laura cut in, looking at Danny with pleading eyes. “please, Danny, just hear her out,”

Danny looked back at the others for some kind of back up, and was met with mixed expressions. Perry was shaking her head frantically while LaFontaine seemed to be torn between curiosity and apprehension, JP looked thoughtful, and Kirsch was looking around at each of them, trying to figure out his own stance on things. 

“I think we should hear her out,” JP said finally, after a few tense moments.

“You can’t be serious,” Perry hissed. “What if she’s some spy and we’re playing right into her trap?”

LaFontaine raised an eyebrow in disbelief at Perry as JP sighed. “I admit that this normally wouldn’t be the ideal course of action,” he conceded. “but I do think we could use all the help we can get,”

“I trust her,” Laura said again. “I don’t really know why, but I do, and we need to listen to her,”

“Okay, L,” LaFontaine nodded.

Laura gave them a small smile and then turned to Carmilla, her eyes gentle. “Tell them what you told me?”

Carmilla heaved a sigh and walked over to the couch as she ran a hand through her hair. She _really_ didn’t want to do this. Telling only Laura was painful enough, let alone telling five people at once. Her stomach unclenched a little, however, when Laura sat down beside her. They weren’t touching, but Carmilla could feel the warmth radiating off Laura’s skin.

Laura gently nudged Carmilla with her shoulder, and Carmilla glanced at her for a moment before beginning to speak.

Laura watched Carmilla intently as she spoke, nodding here and there where it was appropriate. As Carmilla went on, Laura noticed that she was leaving small things out, here and there, but most of it had to do with El, so she understood. It had to have been hard enough saying it the night before, and she knew the feeling, sort of. You could only talk about it so much, and when there were six other people staring at you...it only made it worse. Laura noticed also that Carmilla left out some of the things that had to do with Laura herself, things Carmilla told her. Like how Carmilla couldn’t make herself be cruel. Laura understood that as well. She wasn’t so sure she wanted to tell everyone else just yet, either. It was apparent to both of them that they had an odd...connection, but neither of them understood it. 

When Carmilla finished with her story, Laura spoke up, feeling the need to back her up.

“When this first started happening, I was getting crazy nightmares and I couldn’t think straight, so Carm got me this,” Laura said, pulling her sleeve up and letting the batwing charm hang freely.

Perry let out an alarmed yelp at the sight of the dried batwing while LaFontaine looked positively enchanted. “Dude, that’s hardcore,” They grinned, making Laura shake her head.

“What the hell does it do?” Danny asked, looking at it warily. 

“It keeps the nightmares away,” Laura explained. “it took the foggy feeling in my head away too,”

“And you better not lose it because I traded three pristine bags of O-neg for that,” Carmilla grumbled, slouching into the couch cushions. 

\------

Later on that evening, Laura was standing in front of the large bay window in the living room, staring out the window at the dark grey and black storm clouds that loomed on the horizon. Mattie and Theo had mentioned that a storm was coming, and Laura knew this was it. Carmilla walked up and stopped beside her, staring out the window as well, her face blank.

“It’s starting,” Laura said, fidgeting with the batwing charm.

“That it is,” Carmilla sighed, running her thumb along the rim of the steaming mug she held between her hands.

Laura looked over at Carmilla. “Blood?” She asked, her eyes flicking to the mug in her hands.

“Tea,” Carmilla said with a hint of a smile, lifting the mug momentarily.

Laura nodded with a small smile, but was soon distracted as Perry came up behind them, her worried eyes also fixed on the clouds. 

“Kirsch just left for his date with SJ,” Perry said anxiously. “he said they were going to go to the campus coffee house,”

Laura glanced behind her, her face falling. “Is that safe?” She asked, a knot forming in her stomach.

“Probably not,” LaFontaine said, looking equally as worried. “but it’s still on campus, so maybe they’ll make it back before it starts to really get bad,”

“Are either of them going to be driving?” Laura asked, looking nervous. 

“He didn’t say,” Perry said with a small shrug.

Carmilla watched silently as Laura sighed, and looked back to the window with her fingers twisting together and her brow knit. 

\-------

Two hours had passed and nobody had been able to get ahold of Kirsch.

The storm had moved in alarmingly fast, snow beginning to fall not ten minutes after they first saw the clouds come in. Two or three inches had already accumulated, and it wasn’t slowing. Nobody had gone to sleep, too worried about Kirsch, and all of them, even Carmilla--though she lurked in the background--were sitting around in the living room with tea and various modes of distraction. 

Six pairs of eyes suddenly snapped to the door when they heard a key being inserted into the lock, and in walked a snow covered Kirsch, his head bowed and his eyes red rimmed.

“Kirsch?” Perry asked hesitantly. “sweetie?”

Kirsch looked up at the six of them as they held their breath. “SJ’s dead,” He said quietly, dropping his keys on the bookshelf next to the door. 

“Oh my god, Kirsch,” Laura breathed, sliding off the stool she was sitting on, and rushing to him. She threw her arms around his torso, hugging him tight. Kirsch paused for a moment before wrapping his arms around her back

“What happened?” Danny asked, stunned. 

“She was out...doing Christmas shopping,” Kirsch said, letting go of Laura after a few minutes. “she was rushing back to meet me, and her car hit a patch of ice. They said her car flipped,”

Laura felt a twist in her gut at his words, and kept a hand on his back. Perry began scrambling around the kitchen for the ingredients to make brownies as JP and Danny came over to Kirsch.

“I’m sorry, Kirsch,” Danny said, still in shock.

“It’s my fault,” Kirsch said, his voice flat and his eyes still lost. 

“What?” JP said, his eyebrows shooting up.

“Kirsch, of course it isn’t your fault!” Laura said, her eyebrows knitting together. “It was just an accident,”

“She was rushing back to meet me,” He said, hanging his head. “I should have cancelled, or gone and got her when the storm came in,”

“Kirsch, no,” Laura said, reaching up to tilt his chin up, which was a little bit of feat because she barely reached his shoulder on a good day. “it was an accident, it wasn’t your fault at all,”

Carmilla watched Kirsch and Laura from across the room, still cradling her mug of tea between her hands. She looked over and saw that LaFontaine was watching as well, and stepped over towards them. LaFontaine looked up, but stayed quiet until Carmilla nodded towards Laura, a questioning look on her face.

“She understands,” LaFontaine said simply.

Carmilla quirked an eyebrow. “How so?”

“Not my story to tell,” They said with a shrug, and then walked over to Kirsch.

Carmilla bit her lip as she watched everyone gather around Kirsch, offering hugs and condolences, but her eyes never left Laura, who, despite staying glued to Kirsch’s side and reassuring him, looked like she’d seen a ghost. 

\------

Later on that night, the storm continued to rage on. It wasn’t necessarily severe yet, but the windows rattled occasionally, and the whistling of the wind could be heard now and then. Laura was sitting up in bed with a book, unable to sleep between the creaks and groans of the old house and the fact that her mind hadn’t stopped reeling about Kirsch and SJ. She still couldn’t believe it, and Kirsch...he didn’t deserve to lose someone. 

“I can hear you thinking from over here, Cupcake,” Carmilla murmured, not looking up from her own book.

Laura’s head snapped up, startled. “Oh...just thinking about Kirsch is all,” Laura said quietly. 

Carmilla hummed, her eyes flicking up to Laura and lingering a moment. 

Laura looked towards the window, looking for something else to focus on. “Did you lock the window?”

Carmilla shook her head, still watching Laura. 

Laura sighed and got up to lock it, but the lock was stuck. She grimaced and fiddled with it, trying to get it to close when suddenly an unusually strong gust of wind forced the window open completely, knocking Laura off her feet. Laura fell back with a yelp and hit the floor hard as a flurry of snow blew in through the window.

Carmilla was up in a flash and forced the window closed, locking it with a flick of her fingers. Behind her, Laura sat up with a grunt, but then stilled when she saw the three black crow feathers resting among the snowflakes that covered her lap. Carmilla turned and glanced down, stilling as well when she saw them.

“They’re from her, aren’t they?” Laura asked quietly, looking up at Carmilla.

Carmilla nodded. “They’re her calling card, more or less,” She said quietly, kneeling down beside her. She went to snatch them from Laura’s lap and throw them away, but was distracted by a familiar, metallic scent. She looked to Laura’s shoulder, and could see a small splotch of red, only about an inch long. “you’re bleeding,”

Laura sighed, and winced when she finally noticed the stinging in her shoulder. “The cuts must have reopened,” She looked up to Carmilla, apprehension in her eyes. 

Carmilla rolled her eyes. “Relax, cutie,” She said, looking unimpressed. “pop culture really has misled you about the whole bloodlust thing, hasn’t it?” She smirked. “Besides, I’m not hungry.” Laura huffed and rolled her eyes, which only made Carmilla chuckle. “Her golems did this to you, right?” Carmilla asked after a moment, her voice growing soft again.

Laura nodded. “Yeah, they got me across my shoulder and a little on my chest,” She said, grimacing as she got to her feet. “They’ve been healing really slow,”

“That’s to be expected, if it came from them,” Carmilla said quietly. 

“You don’t by any chance have a charm for that too, do you?” Laura asked, actually a bit hopeful.

“Sorry, cutie,” Carmilla said with a small laugh. 

Laura nodded and ran a hand through her hair with a sigh. 

“Go to sleep,” Carmilla said after a moment. “I’ll be up for a while,” 

Laura looked back to her, wondering if Carmilla was implying what she thought. “Okay,” She nodded, and made her way back to her bed. The bleeding had stopped, so she wasn’t worried about the cut right now. She just wanted to get some sleep. 

Once Laura was tucked under her covers, she looked over to Carmilla, who, as promised, was sitting up with a book. “Night, Carm,” Laura said quietly. 

Carmilla looked up, a little surprised. “Night,” She said with a tiny smile.


	13. Chapter 12

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The gang is brought up to speed and Carmilla experiences fight or flight. But mostly flight.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> HELLO! Yes it has been like seven months since an update. I'm sorry, I know I say it literally every time by my life is crazy, so...for the time being, things are just going to get updated when I can update them. Hopefully I'll be able to get more regular soon with updates.
> 
> Anyway, I hope you guys like this chapter! Don't forget to check out my TDIRAU page for extras--I post corresponding visuals and often music that goes with the chapters! Got a ton coming up for this chapter on there, so check it out! And as always feel free to send me any questions you have about this AU, or any others!

Laura strode down the hall towards her psych professor’s office, feeling only marginally more rested than usual. She had originally planned on sleeping in, with it being Saturday and all, but her beeping phone had woken her up at seven that morning with an email saying that she had to meet her Psych professor at eight sharp.

She didn’t even know anyone was actually in the office on the weekends. 

Carmilla had been passed out on her bed, boots and all, when Laura had woken up, so she’d just quietly went about getting ready, and then slipped out.

She stopped in front of the door and heaved it open. “Morning, Profe--” She began, but the words died in her throat when she saw who was sitting at her professor’s desk.

Staring back at her with cold eyes and a malevolent smirk was Lilita, a hand on her chin. “Good morning to you too, Laura,”

“What are you doing here?” Laura said quietly, eyes flashing. 

“I’m filling in for Professor Yates today. He’s...ill.” She stood, pushing the desk chair back a bit. “We have some things we need to discuss,”

“I don’t have what you want,” Laura said through gritted teeth as her hand clenched around that weathered little box in her jacket pocket.

“Oh, but I think you do,” The Rider grinned. “Just give me the sign, Laura. We don’t have to be enemies. I have powers that can give you whatever you desire,” 

Laura saw a flash of green eyes in her mind’s eye and winced like Lilita had slapped her.

“Powers that can help you,” Lilita continued. The Rider reached out and placed her hand on Laura’s bad shoulder, her cold fingers brushing against her skin. Within seconds, the itchiness and the dull throb that had been rooted in her shoulder for days now receded, and new, healed flesh replaced the scabbed skin. 

Laura looked from her shoulder back to Lilita, her eyes confused but still wary.

“or I can make things far, _far_ worse for you,” Lilita growled, her grip tightening on Laura’s shoulder. 

Laura let out a strangled gasp as the pain in her shoulder came roaring back tenfold, her flesh turning black and blue, tendrils creeping up her neck and down her arm. It felt like an icicle was boring through her shoulder, and she gritted her teeth, willing her knees not to buckle as she tried to squirm away from Lilita’s iron grip. 

Lilita held on though, not allowing Laura to budge. “Give it to me,” Lilita hissed, the room growing colder with Lilita’s fury. 

“ _No_ ,” Laura spat back, her voice cracking with the pain. 

Lilita went to grip her shoulder harder, when suddenly the office door banged open. Lilita snatched her hand back and looked to the young man who was standing in the doorway. 

“Ms. Morgan?” He asked, glancing down at the stack of papers in his hands.

“Yes?” The Rider clipped out, watching Laura from the corner of her eye.

Laura looked between the two of them as she inched closer to the door, her chest heaving at the echoing pain in her shoulder. 

“I have the lesson plans for tomorrow from Professor--“

Laura pushed past him and shot out of the office before he finished, and ran as fast as she could through the empty halls, her pounding footsteps echoing off tiled floors and stone walls. 

The bat wing charm felt heavy on her wrist and the one thought that was pounding through her head was _get home, just get home._

\-------

When Laura reached the house, she thanked whatever celestial beings were on her side that it was still early enough for everyone, even Perry to be asleep. She slipped inside quietly, and shed her coat by the door, toeing off her boots clumsily as the trembling set in. Laura took a deep breath and started towards he kitchen, raking a shaking hand through her hair before rummaging around in the cabinets for her box of cocoa powder. She needed a giant mug after that. 

Soon, she was sitting at the counter, her head resting on the cold granite and her mug of untouched cocoa by her right hand as she tried and failed miserably at processing everything that had been going on since the Christmas party at Cochorane’s. She lifted her head and breathed out a heavy sigh. She couldn’t deal with this right now. Her shoulder was still aching, worse than it had been, and she rolled it to try and dispel some of the lingering chill from Lilita’s grip. She ran a hand down her face and took a long sip of her cocoa, sighing in relief as the warmth spread through her. 

\-------

Several hours passed, and everyone was now lounging around the living room, even Carmilla. Everyone was doing homework or reading, or in Laura’s case, doing more research about the Light and the Dark.

She hadn’t mentioned the incident that morning. Her shoulder still throbbed and she didn’t want to risk incurring Danny’s wrath again because frankly she just couldn’t handle it right now. She’d gotten out alive, that was what she was focusing on at the moment. She could sort the rest out later. The little tattered box weighed heavily in her pocket, and she was starting to wonder if she’d actually be able to give it to LaFontaine when Christmas rolled around. As each day passed she was more and more loathed to part with it. Laura leaned back and let out a breath, her hand going into her sweatshirt pocket, her fingers curling around the box. 

Carmilla looked over the top of her book at Laura, watching as she closed her eyes for a moment and clenched her hand around something in her pocket. She could feel Maman on her, and it was making Carmilla’s skin crawl. She didn’t mention it though. Laura would tell her when she was ready. 

Suddenly, Laura felt her world tilt. Her eyes flew open but It did little to ground her. All she could see were blurred, swirling colors and all she could hear were the garbled voices of her friends. 

Then, as suddenly as it began, everything stopped, and Laura landed flat on her back among the leaves. Around her, she heard soft thuds and muffled groans.

“What the hell happened?” LaFontaine groaned, being the first to talk as they sat up. 

Laura sat up as well, her eyes scanning their immediate surroundings, and then rising to see the ancient stone building in the distance. 

“We stepped through time,” Carmilla said, beating Laura to it. There was an edge to her voice. Agitated. Or panicked. 

Laura glanced up at her before getting to her feet. “Yeah, this is what happened last time,” She said, her hand reaching into her pocket to make sure the little box was still there. 

“Where are we??” Perry asked frantically, nervously dusting herself off. “We were in the living room, and, and now we’re suddenly here?? In the woods??” She babbled, looking around warily.

LaFontaine got to their feet and quickly walked over her, placing their hands on her shoulders. “We’re fine, okay? Everything’s going to be fine,” 

Danny looked around in wonder as she got up, not noticing the leaves in her hair. Kirsch and JP were much the same, looking around in disbelief.

“So what now?” LaFontaine asked, looking at Laura once they’d calmed Perry down some.

Laura’s eyes were trained on the Lustig, which stood across a field from them. She didn’t answer LaFontaine, not really sure what to tell them, and started walking towards the stone building. She’d already told them all that they had a part to play in things, but she still hoped that they’d take it well, and not run for the hills. She didn’t know how to do this without her friends.

“I guess we follow Little Nerd,” Kirsch said, cheerily, though there was a hint of uncertainty in his eyes.

Carmilla caught up to Laura in seconds, her hands jammed into her pockets and her mouth in a tight line. “Are you insane? You know I can’t be here,” She hissed, leaning towards Laura to keep her voice low. 

“And why not? You’re here, aren’t you?” Laura asked, glancing at Carmilla, but quickly looking ahead again when she realized how close their faces were.

“I’m part of the Dark, Laura, I can’t go in there, and even if I could, the Old Ones would kill me before I got within throwing distance,” She growled. “and you’re the one who brought me here,”

“You’re helping us, aren’t you?” Laura snapped back. “As far as I’m concerned you’re only Dark by formality, and apparently there’s a reason why my subconscious brought you along, okay?” Laura huffed, and pulled ahead of the vampire.

Carmilla paused for a moment and sighed before continuing on after the Seeker, keeping some distance between them.

The doors to the Lustig creaked open as Laura’s booted foot landed on the first step, and on the other side of the door waited the Old Ones. The four of them stood there, unarmed and patiently waiting. 

“What’s going on?” Laura asked, “I know I brought us here but I don’t know why, did something happen? Because I saw the Rider this morning, she tried to get the signs from me again--”

“Everything is alright for the time being,” Cochorane said reassuringly, holding a hand up. “We needed to speak to your friends, and you, to finish explaining everything,” Cochorane rested her hand on Laura’s shoulder and Laura immediately felt the aching that’d grown worse from the Rider’s touch ease considerably. 

Laura didn’t see how Carmilla’s eyes widened in alarm when she’d mentioned the Rider’s attack that morning.

“Oh,” Laura nodded, letting out a breath. She looked back at her roommates, who were all regarding either the building, or the Old Ones with curious eyes, except for Carmilla, who’s eyes were firmly focused on her boots. 

“Well come in, all of you,” Vordenberg said, his patience running out rather quickly like it usually did. 

Mattie rolled her eyes at him and stepped aside with the others, allowing the seven to walk through. Carmilla crossed the threshold last, carefully, expecting an ambush or something sharp and wooden to come hurdling at her chest, but none came. She glanced at Mattie with hard, wary eyes, and got a similar look back from the immortal, before she turned her face towards Laura again and continued on into the Hall.

“Welcome to the Lustig,” Theo said with a small smile once they reached the large table, drawing all seven gazes to him from where they were gawking over the interior. “This is our stronghold, the Dark can’t enter here unless we allow it,”

Carmilla watched him carefully from her spot at the back of the group, her arms crossed over her chest.

“The seven of you have important work to do,” Cochorane continued, but was suddenly cut off by Carmilla.

“The _seven_ of us?” She asked incredulously, looking at the Old Ones like they all had three heads.

“Yes,” Cochorane answered, a knowing look in her eye.

“Are you people aware of who I am, because I shouldn’t have even been able to walk past that door,” Carmilla said, pointing back at the grand entrance. 

“You are Carmilla Karnstein, vampire, three hundred and thirty-four years old, daughter of the Rider and servant of the Dark,” Cochorane said nonchalantly, crossing her arms. “though not by choice.”

All eyes turned to Carmilla, whose gaze had somehow hardened even further, her shoulders tensing. “So you know me,” She said. “well, what could you possibly want with me, other than to kill me?”

“You have a part to play,” Cochorane said, “but I’d appreciate it if we could finish our explanation first,” She said in not a mean tone, but one that suggested they should and _would_ let her speak.

Cochorane took a breath and rested her hands on the table. “As I’m sure Laura told you, humanity’s existence is in danger.” She started seriously. “The Dark is rising and we have found our Seeker--Laura--but she alone can’t shoulder this. Each of you will help her find one of the six signs she needs to harness the power of the Light, and defeat the Dark.”

Laura shuffled her feet slightly and gripped the little box in her hand as the others looked between her and the Old Ones. She’d told them what the Old Ones told her after Cochorane’s party, but she wasn’t sure if the weight of the situation had sunk in for them when she’d explained what she knew. If it hadn’t then it was now. Perry was fidgeting nervously even as LaFontaine held her hand, and Danny as well as JP were looking a little worried. Kirsch look a little lost, as usual, and Carmilla, despite trying to hide it, looked like she wanted to cave in on herself.

Laura’s heart was thumping hard against her ribcage as the Old Ones turned to her now. 

“Laura?” Mattie said, stepping forward. “You’ve seemed rather attached to whatever’s in your pocket. Have you found a sign?”

Laura opened her mouth to say something as she pulled the little box out of her pocket, but nothing came out. She looked down at it and watched the swirling patterns in the fibers of the paper box, and it clicked into place. She looked up again, showing them the box. “I...yeah, I guess I did,”

Theo beckoned for Laura to step up to the table, and Laura quickly unwrapped the pendant, laying it on the ancient wood. “Theo, can I borrow you hammer?” She asked. Theo nodded and handed the war hammer over, and Laura lifted it with surprising ease. “LaF, I’m sorry,” She said, looking over to the redhead, “this was supposed to be your christmas gift,”

LaFontaine shrugged with a smile, curiosity glinting in their eyes. “It’s okay Frosh, do what you gotta go,”

Laura smiled a little and nodded at them, and then set the hammer down on the table. She took a breath as she hefted the hammer, and then brought it down on the pendant. 

Ceramic shards shot in all directions, spraying over the ancient wood of the table. Laura pulled the hammer away and there on the table sat a roughly hewn disc of dark stone with four holes punched in it, dusted in ceramic shards. The center glowed a faint gold, warming Laura’s palm as she picked it up. 

“The Sign of Stone,” Cochorane said.

“Five more to go,” Mattie sighed. 

Laura looked up at them, and then her friends. The old Ones all looked very serious, her friends overwhelmed, but determined, nonetheless. Carmilla was barely masking sheer terror. 

“The seven of you are part of the Light,” Mattie said, her eyes shifting from Laura to the group. “Your job is to assist Laura in finding the remaining five signs, and restore Light to the world,”

\-------

The door to Carmilla and Laura’s room slammed open, the hinges rattling against the wood. 

Carmilla yanked her rucksack from the closet and threw it on her bed, shoving anything of hers that she could get her hands on into it. She had to go. Now. 

Laura ran in after her, mouth agape. “Where are you going?” She demanded, “Didn’t you hear them? You’re a part of this, you can’t leave!”

“Did _you_ hear the part where _I am part of the Dark_?” Carmilla growled. 

“Apparently you’re not!” Laura shot back, “If you were, you wouldn’t have been able to step foot in the Lustig!”

“It was a fluke! Maman literally pried apart the jaws of _death_ to raise me to join the Dark, to be her servant.” She hissed, eyes wild and hair windblown from the travel back. She stepped closer to Laura, teeth bared. “I am a _monster_ ,” She said, “tell me, Laura, how can a monster be part of the Light?”

Laura regarded her quietly, feeling that same tug as that night on the roof as she looked into Carmilla’s deep brown eyes. “You’re not a monster,” She said quietly, shaking her head. “a monster wouldn’t be trying to sabotage The Rider, trying to help me, protect me.” Laura paused, fighting an odd urge to touch Carmilla’s cheek. “I see Light in you, more than Dark,”

Carmilla’s nostrils flared, her jaw clenching. “What do you want from me, Laura?” She grit out.

“Stay,” Laura said simply, “fight with us. They said all of my roommates would have a part. You’re the one that completed the chain making me the Seeker, making me the youngest of seven.”

“She will raze us all to the ground,” Carmilla said, her eyes hard. “and the world will follow.”

Laura looked over Carmilla’s shoulder to the half packed rucksack sitting on Carmilla’s bed. “There’s a chance we can win,” She said, “a good chance. There is no chance, for any of us, if you run.” against her better judgement, Laura reached out and gently wrapped her fingers around Carmilla’s clenched hand, and felt it unclench ever so slightly against her. “Stay,” She said again, her voice soft. 

Carmilla stared at her wordlessly for a moment before letting out a sigh. “Fine,” She said, her body still tense but her eyes not quite as hard. “I’ll stay,”

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading!
> 
> if you have any questions or would just like to come say hi, swing by my [ tumblr](http://batwingsandblackcats.tumblr.com/) :)


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